Colin Henderson Roberts (8 June 1909 – 11 February 1990) was a classical scholar and publisher. He was Secretary to the Delegates of

Oxford University 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 ...

between 1954 and 1974.

Biography

Roberts was born on 8 June 1909 in

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, Stoke Newington,

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 ...

. His elder brother, Brian Richard Roberts, was later the editor of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

''. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford, where he read Classics, taking Firsts in both Honour Moderations and '' literae humaniores'' and was elected to the Craven University Fellowship. In 1934 he was elected a Junior Research Fellow at St John's, and remained a fellow there until 1976. Under the influence of his tutors, Roberts became interested in

papyrology Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

and in the history of the book in ancient times. He participated in the excavations at

Karanis Karanis ( grc-koi, Καρανίς), located in what is now Kom Oshim, was an agricultural town in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and Roman Egypt located in the northeast corner of the Faiyum. It was roughly 60 hectares in size and its peak population is ...

organized by the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and published some Biblical papyri in the collections of the

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. During World War II, he worked in intelligence in London and

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. In 1948 he was elected

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

in Documentary Papyrology at Oxford. In 1954 Roberts succeeded A. L. P. Norrington as Secretary to the Delegates of

, holding the post until 1974. During his tenure he oversaw the publication of the ''

New English Bible The New English Bible (NEB) is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1961 and the Old Testament (with the Apocrypha) was published on 16 March 1970. In 1989, it was significantly revised and republished as the R ...

''.

Awards

He was appointed

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1973. Roberts was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1947, but resigned (along with his friend

T. C. Skeat Theodore Cressy Skeat (15 February 1907 — 25 June 2003) was a librarian at the British Museum, where he worked as Assistant Keeper (from 1931), Deputy Keeper (from 1948), and Keeper of Manuscripts and Egerton Librarian (from 1961 to 1972). Skeat ...

) in 1979, in protest against its decision not to expel the traitor Anthony Blunt from the fellowship.

Works

*''Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt'', C. H. Roberts, Hon. D. Litt., 1977. *''Birth of the Codex'', by Colin Henderson Roberts, Theodore Cressy Skeat, 1954. *''Two Biblical Papyri in the John Rylands Library'', Manchester, 1936. *''The Antinoopolis Papyri ... Edited with translations and notes'',1950, by C. H. Robers, etc. With plates, by John Wintour Baldwin Barns, Colin Henderson Roberts *''Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks'', 1955. General editors: R. W. Hunt, C. H. Roberts, F. Wormald

References

1909 births 1990 deaths British biblical scholars British classical scholars Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British publishers (people) British papyrologists Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of St John's College, Oxford People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood 20th-century British businesspeople {{UK-academic-bio-stub