Daniel Webb (1718/19 – 2 August 1798) was an Irish writer on aesthetics whose works enjoyed a considerable vogue for a time.
Life
Webb was born at
Maidstown,
County Limerick
"Remember Limerick"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Ireland
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Munster
, subdivision ...
, in 1718 or 1719, the eldest son of Daniel Webb of Maidstown Castle, and his wife Dorothea, daughter and heiress of M. Leake of Castle Leake,
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...
. He matriculated from
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
, on 13 June 1735.
Following his studies he went to Rome, where he became friendly with the Neoclassical painter
Anton Raphael Mengs
Anton Raphael Mengs (22 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German people, German painter, active in Dresden, Rome, and Madrid, who while painting in the Rococo period of the mid-18th century became one of the precursors to Neoclassicism, Neoclas ...
who painted his portrait.
On his return to Britain he published his ''Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting'' (1760).
Winkelmann Winkelmann or Winkelman is a German and Jewish surname that referred to someone who either lived at a corner or owned a shop there. It is the surname of:
* Christian Herman Winkelmann, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita (1939–1946)
* ...
later accused him of having plagiarised the work from the unpublished manuscript of Mengs' treatise ''Gedanken über die Schönheit''.
In later life he lived mainly at
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
. He was married twice, first, to Jane Lloyd and, later to Elizabeth Creed. He died, leaving no children, on 2 August 1798.
Works
*''An Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting'' ( London 1760; 4th edition 1777;
three German translations appeared in 1771,
and an Italian one was published in Venice in 1791).
*''Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry'', (London 1762; new edition Dublin 1764).
*''Observations on the Correspondence between Poetry and Music'' (London 1769; German translation Leipzig 1771).
*''Literary Amusements in Verse and Prose'' (London 1787).
* ''Some Reasons for thinking the Greek Language was borrowed from the Chinese: In Notes on the "Grammatica Sinica" of Mons. Fourmont'' (London 1787).
Webb's theory of the derivation of the Greek language was not one that
Fourmont, a French scholar who died in 1745, had considered.
These five works were republished in one volume in 1802 by
Thomas Winstanley
Thomas Winstanley (1749 – 2 September 1823) was an academic at the University of Oxford, who held the positions of Camden Professor of Ancient History, Laudian Professor of Arabic, and principal of St Alban Hall.
Life
Winstanley was born in th ...
under the title of ''Miscellanies''.
In 1789 Webb produced his ''Selections from "Les Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains" of
Mr. Pauw''. Initially only fifty copies were printed, for private circulation. Another edition was published for a wider readership in 1795,
as ''Selections from M. Pauw, with Additions by Daniel Webb, Esq.''.The extracts were randomly ordered, with the additional comments printed in
italics
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...
to differentiate them from Pauw's text.
A contemporary reviewer wrote that "
ebboften pauses to reflect on the facts which his author furnishes and his reflections, though sometimes a little out of the beaten track, are always ingenious, and most commonly judicious."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Daniel
1710s births
1798 deaths
18th-century Irish writers
Writers from County Limerick
Alumni of New College, Oxford