Ingram Bywater, FBA (27 June 1840 – 18 December 1914) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

He was born in Islington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and first educated first at

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_he ...

and

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...

, then at

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. He obtained a first class in Moderations (1860) and in the final classical schools (1862), and became fellow of

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

(1863), reader in Greek (1883), Regius Professor of Greek (1893–1908), and Student of Christ Church. He received honorary degrees from various universities, and was elected corresponding member of the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

. He is chiefly known for his editions of Greek philosophical works: '' Heracliti Ephesii Reliquiae'' (1877); '' Prisciani Lydi quae extant'' (edited for the Berlin Academy in the ''Supplementum Aristotelicum'', 1886); ''

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

, Ethica Nicomachea'' (1890), '' De Arte Poetica'' (1898); ''Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Nicomachean Ethics'' (1892). Bywater was associated with the Oxford Aristotelian Society from its inception in the early 1880s and remained its principal guiding force until his retirement in 1908. Here he would discuss with scholars such as J.A. Smith, Harold Joachim, and W.D. (later Sir David) Ross the minutiae of Aristotelian philology, textual criticism, and translation. The Society's discussions led to the full translation of Aristotle's works, first under the joint editorship of J.A. Smith and W.D. Ross and later under Ross as sole editor, between 1912 and 1954.

Collection

Bywater was an expert bibliophile and bequeathed around 4,000 volumes of his collection to the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1915. His collection illustrates the history of classical learning and contains the names of both great and obscure European humanists of the early 16th and 17th centuries, with most of the books dating before 1650. Aristotle and his commentators are also well represented in the collection. Around 50 books have MS marginalia by scholars, nearly 200 are autographed, and around 50 bear the arms of De Thou on the bindings. There are around 150 incunabula (31 of them Greek), and over 1,100 books (459 of them Greek) which were printed in the first half of the 16th century, a third of these by Parisian presses. The Bodleian Library also acquired some 64 volumes of MS material, including Bywater’s correspondence with eminent European scholars. The collection also spans numerous languages including Latin, Greek, Italian and German. Some of the collection is available to view via the Digital Bodleian website

Notes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bywater, Ingram English classical scholars 1840 births 1914 deaths People educated at King's College School, London Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford People educated at University College School Regius Professors of Greek (University of Oxford) British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Fellows of the British Academy