Eva Mary Barbara Reynolds (13 June 1914 – 29 April 2015) was an English scholar of Italian Studies, lexicographer and translator. She wrote and edited several books concerning

Dorothy Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

and was president of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society. She turned 100 in June 2014. Her first marriage was to the philologist and translator

Lewis Thorpe Lewis Guy Melville Thorpe FRSA FRHistS (5 November 1913 – 10 October 1977)''UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-2018'' was a British philologist and translator. He was married to the Italian scholar and lexicographer Barbara Reynolds. After ...

Early life

The daughter of Alfred Charles Reynolds, and the god-daughter of writer

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

, Reynolds was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School and

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

.REYNOLDS, Barbara
at Who's Who online (accessed 26 November 2007)

Career

Reynolds was an Assistant Lecturer in Italian at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

from 1937 to 1940. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, she was an Assistant Lecturer (1940–1945) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, then University Lecturer in Italian Literature and Language from 1945 to 1962. She was Warden of Willoughby Hall,

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

, from 1963 to 1969 and Reader in Italian Studies at Nottingham from 1966 to 1978. Alongside her teaching work, she was Chief Executive and General Editor of the

Cambridge Italian Dictionary Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

from 1948 to 1981 and Managing Editor of ''Seven'', an Anglo-American literary review, from 1980 to 2004. Reynolds held the title of Honorary Reader in Italian at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

from 1975 to 1980 and was Visiting Professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, 1974–75, Wheaton College,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, 1977–78, and 1982, Trinity College, Dublin, 1980 and 1981, and

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricu ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, 1982. She was chairman of the ''Dorothy L Sayers Society'' from 1986 to 1994 and President from 1995. Its officers in recent years have regularly programmed events for 13 June, the common birthday of Sayers and Reynolds. She died on 29 April 2015.Homepage of the Dorothy L. Sayers society
/ref>

Awards and honours

The Italian government awarded Reynolds its Silver Medal for Services to Italian culture in 1964 and made her '' Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana'' in 1978. She won the Edmund G. Gardner Memorial Prize for Italian Studies in 1964 and the Monselice International Literary Prize in 1976 for her translation of '' Orlando Furioso''.

Major publications

Her major work is the ''Cambridge Italian Dictionary'', of which she was the General Editor. The first volume appeared in 1962 and the second in 1981. Beyond the Dictionary, her first book was a study of

Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel '' The Betrothed'' (orig. it, I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the maste ...

. She completed and annotated '' Paradiso'', the last volume of

' three-volume translation of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

'', which was left unfinished at Dorothy Sayers' death. Reynolds afterwards translated Dante's ''

La Vita Nuova ''La Vita Nuova'' (; Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and ve ...

'' and

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

's '' Orlando Furioso'' for the

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the West ...

. She wrote a study of Dante's life and work, ''Dante: The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man''. In 1993 Reynolds published a biography of Sayers, who was her god-mother, called ''Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul'' (1993). She also edited four volumes of Sayers's letters and an additional volume.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Barbara 1914 births 2015 deaths British centenarians Italian–English translators British lexicographers People educated at St Paul's Girls' School Academics of the University of Nottingham Academics of the University of Warwick Alumni of University College London Wheaton College (Illinois) faculty Women lexicographers 20th-century translators 20th-century women writers Women centenarians