Henry Nettleship (5 May 1839 – 10 July 1893) was an English

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

Life

Nettleship was born at

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...

, and was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

Durham School Durham School is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located in Durham, North East England and was an all-boys institution until 1985, when girls were admitted to the sixth form. The school takes pupils ...

and

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey London ...

schools, and gained a scholarship for entry to

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

in 1858. In 1861, he was elected to a fellowship at

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

, which he vacated on his marriage in 1870 to Matilda Steel, eldest daughter of his colleague Rev. T.H. Steel at Harrow. In 1868, he became an assistant master at Harrow, but in 1873 he returned to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and was elected to a fellowship at

Corpus Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

. In 1878 he was appointed to succeed Edwin Palmer as the Corpus Professor of Latin, and held the post till his death. In 1879, Nettleship sat in the committee which was formed to create an Oxford

women's college Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...

"in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations." This resulted in the founding of

Somerville Hall Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iri ...

(later Somerville College). He had a son, Henry Melvill (who died aged 20) and a daughter, Edith.

Works

Nettleship had always been interested in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, and a good deal of his time was devoted to his favourite poet. After

John Conington John Conington (10 August 1825 – 23 October 1869) was an English classical scholar. In 1866 he published his best-known work, the translation of the ''Aeneid'' of Virgil into the octosyllabic metre of Walter Scott. He was Corpus Professor ...

's death in 1869, he saw his edition of Virgil through the press, and revised and corrected subsequent editions of the work. In 1875, he had undertaken to compile a new

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

for the

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, but the work proved more than he could accomplish, and in 1887 he published some of the results of twelve years' labour in a volume entitled ''Contributions to Latin

Lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

'', a genuine piece of original work. In conjunction with

John Edwin Sandys Sir John Edwin Sandys ( "Sands"; 19 May 1844 – 6 July 1922) was an English classical scholar. Life Born in Leicester, England on 19 May 1844, Sandys was the 4th son of Rev. Timothy Sandys (1803–1871) and Rebecca Swain (1800–1853). Livin ...

, Nettleship revised and edited Oskar Seyffert's ''

Dictionary of Classical Antiquities The ''Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'' (1891, revised many times in the 1950s and 60s), covers Ancient Greek and Roman antiquities, mythology and literature in over 2,500 articles. It was written in German by Oskar Seyffert and edited by H ...

'', and he contributed to a volume entitled ''Essays on the Endowment of Research'' an article on "The Present Relations between Classical Research and Classical Education in England," in which he pointed out the great value of the professorial lecture in Germany. In his views on the research question, he was a follower of Mark Pattison, whose essays he edited in 1889 for the

. In ''Lectures and Essays on Subjects connected with Latin Literature and Scholarship'', Nettleship revised and republished some of his previous publications. A second series of these, published in 1895, and edited by F. Haverfield, contained a memoir by Mrs M. Nettleship.

Legacy

In 1895 Nettleship's widow Matilda donated his library to the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW) where it formed a shared collection for all women students. Based in the attics of the

Clarendon Building Clarendon Building is an early 18th-century neoclassical building of the University of Oxford. It is in Broad Street, Oxford, England, next to the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre and near the centre of the city. It was built betwee ...

, it later moved to Jowett Walk and then became the library of the Society of Oxford Home-Students (later St Anne's College) in 1934. In the present day, the library at St Anne's College is referred to as the Nettleship Collection.History of the Nettleship Library
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Notes

References

*Obituary notices appeared in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (11 July 1893); '' Classical Review'' (October, 1893); ''

Oxford Magazine ''The Oxford Magazine'' is a review magazine and newspaper published in Oxford, England.''The Oxford Magazi ...

'' (18 October 1893)
South Australian Register
(12 July 1893). *

External links

* *
Complete online version of Lectures and Essays, 1895
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nettleship, Henry 1839 births 1893 deaths People educated at Durham School People educated at Lancing College People educated at Charterhouse School English classical scholars Schoolteachers from Northamptonshire Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi Professors of Latin 19th-century English non-fiction writers 19th-century English male writers People from Kettering Founders of colleges of the University of Oxford People associated with Somerville College, Oxford