Carlotta Minna "Lotte" Labowsky (1905–1991) was a Jewish German classicist who left Germany in 1934 and became a Fellow of

Somerville College, Oxford 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, Ir ...

. She specialised in "the transmission of ancient Greek thought to the western world", working on the ''Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi'' series and on the library of

Bessarion Bessarion ( el, Βησσαρίων; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the so-called great revival of letters ...

Early life and education

Labowsky was born 23 April 1905 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

to a Jewish family. She studied classics and philosophy in Munich and then took a doctorate in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

in 1932. She volunteered in the Warburg Library in Hamburg, established by

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...

whose daughters had been her school-friends. After anti-Jewish legislation was introduced in 1933, the Warburg Library moved to London and became the Warburg Institute, and she was invited to continue her research there; she was a senior research fellow of the Warburg Institute 1946–1951.

Refugee and scholar

Labowsky moved to Oxford in 1934, and was supported initially by the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL, later the

Council for At-Risk Academics The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) is a charitable British organisation dedicated to assisting academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to remain in their home countries despite the serious risks they face ...

). She managed to bring her parents, and their furniture, out of Germany before the outbreak of war. By January 1939 the SPSL's support had reduced, and Somerville College offered to support Labowsky through free meals in the Senior Common Room and then through a research grant. The principal of the college,

Helen Darbishire Helen Darbishire, (1881–1961) was an English literary scholar, who was Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, from 1931 until her retirement in 1945.'Obituary: Miss Helen Darbishire, former principal of Somerville College', ''The Guardian'' ...

, wrote letters to protect Labowsky from internment as an enemy alien, and to ask for her father Norbert to be released after he was interned in June 1940. Somerville offered her the post of acting librarian in 1943, and in 1946 she was appointed as the Lady Carlisle Senior Research Fellow. She subsequently became an Additional Fellow and a member of the governing body of the college, and was an honorary research fellow from 1972 to 1991. Her scholarly work included the ''Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi'', working on this from 1936 along with

Raymond Klibansky Raymond Klibansky, (October 15, 1905 – August 5, 2005) was a German-Canadian historian of philosophy and art. Biography Born in Paris, to Rosa Scheidt and Hermann Klibansky, he was educated at the University of Kiel, University of Hamburg ...

and continuing alone after 1941. She studied the Greek manuscripts which

gave to the Republic of Venice, publishing ''Bessarion's Library and the Biblioteca Marciano'' in 1979, and wrote his biography for the ''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biograp ...

''. On her death in 1991, Labowsky's legacy to Somerville included a collection of antiquarian books, a painting by

Paula Modersohn-Becker Paula Modersohn-Becker (8 February 1876 – 20 November 1907) was a German Expressionist painter of the late 19th and early 20th century. Her work is noted for its intensity and its blunt, unapologetic humanity, and for the many self-portraits the ...

and funding for a fellowship named for

Rosemary Woolf Rosemary Estelle Woolf (27 December 1925 – 13 April 1978) was an English scholar of medieval literature, known especially for her work on medieval English religious lyrics, ''The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages''. Biography Wool ...

. She died in Oxford on 28 July 1991, aged 86. Her obituary in ''The Times'' said that she "...embodied the humanist tradition of a bygone age in Europe".

Selected publications

*''Die ethik des Panaitios : untersuchungen zur geschichte des decorum bei Cicero und Horaz'' (1934, Leipzig : F. Meiner) *''Corpus platonicum medii aevi. Auspiciis Academiae Britannicae adiuvantibus Instituto Warburgiano Londinensi unitisque academiis edidit Raymundus Klibansky. vol. 1. Meno. Interprete Henrico Aristippo. Edidit Victor Kordeuter. Recognovit et praefatione instruxit. Carlotta Labowsky.'' (1940–1953) *''Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana : six early inventories'' (1979, Warburg Institute)

Early life and education

Refugee and scholar

Selected publications

References

Further reading