Paul Henry Maty (1744 – 16 January 1787) was an English

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

. Maty was born in London, the son of the librarian

Matthew Maty Matthew Maty (17 May 1718 – 2 July 1776), originally Matthieu Maty, was a Dutch physician and writer of Huguenot background, and after migration to England secretary of the Royal Society and the second principal librarian of the British Museum ...

(1718–1786), and was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He vacated a Trinity fellowship to marry in 1775. In 1777 he published his religious doubts about the 39 articles in the ''

Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine' ...

''. With his Ecclesiastical advancement thus impeded, he became an assistant librarian, and then under-librarian, at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in May 1771. He also obtained the job of foreign secretary, and subsequently general secretary, to the Society – although taking

Charles Hutton Charles Hutton FRS FRSE LLD (14 August 1737 – 27 January 1823) was a British mathematician and surveyor. He was professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich from 1773 to 1807. He is remembered for his calculation of the ...

's side in his dispute with the president Joseph Banks forced Maty's resignation in 1784. From 1782 to 1786 Maty founded, edited and was primary author of a review journal, ''

A New Review A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...

: with Literary Curiosities and Literary Intelligence''. He indexed the '' Philosophical Transactions'', collaborated with

Samuel Ayscough Samuel Ayscough (1745–1804) was a librarian and indexer, who was described as the "Prince of Index Makers". Family and early life Samuel Ayscough was the grandson of William Ayscough, a stationer and printer of Nottingham, where he introduced ...

on a catalogue of the British Museum's printed books, and translated the ''Travels through Germany'' of Johann Kaspar Riesbeck (1754-1786). Some of his sermons were posthumously published by

Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ...

. On his death he was buried in Bunhill Fields.

Works

*''An history of the instances of exclusion from the Royal Society … with strictures on the formation of the council and other instances of the despotism of Sir Joseph Banks, the present president'', 1784 *''A General Index to the Philosophical Transactions, vols. i–lxx'', 1787 *(with Samuel Ayscough & S. Harper) ''Librorum impressorum qui in Museo britannico, adservantur catalogus'', 1787 *(transl.) ''Travels through Germany, in a series of letters'', 1787 *''Sermons preached in the British Ambassador's Chapel, at Paris, in the years 1774, 1775, 1776'', 1788

References

*Thomas Seccombe
‘Maty, Paul Henry (1744–1787)’
rev. Rebecca Mills, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 6 Jan 2008

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maty, Paul Henry 1744 births 1787 deaths Librarians from London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society British critics of Christianity English religious sceptics 18th-century English Anglican priests Burials at Bunhill Fields