De Sacra poesi Hebræorum
by Robert Lowth
Robert Lowth (1710-1787) was born in Winchester, England. He attended Winchester College, St. John’s College at Oxford, and was admitted as a scholar at New College before becoming a fellow. Lowth gained recognition for his poems in both English and Latin very early in life. In 1741, he was elected a professor of poetry at Oxford, and served for ten years. He mainly focused on religious poetry, looking into “divinely inspired” Hebrew verses and creating new methods for reading and understanding the religious passages of verse.[1] During this time
Ordained in 1742, Lowth served as a priest and a chaplain before being appointed a royal chaplain in 1757. In 1766, he was consecrated as Bishop of St. David’s before being nominated and confirmed as a bishop of London.[2] He later declined to accept the position of archbishop of Canterbury.[3] Lowth preached frequently, and often focused on the need for godly administration within the church. As bishop, he was known for his eradication of “abuses of the clergy in political and financial matters.”[4]
Lowth's De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum derived from his lectures at Oxford. First published in 1753, the work helped "to expand and define the canon of biblical poetry."[5] In it,
Lowth urged the importance of setting biblical poetry in the context of oriental rather than classical style and the impossibility of ever determining the ancient vocalization of the Hebrew Bible with sufficient accuracy to identify its true metrical structure. In place of metre Lowth argued that the structure of Hebrew verse could be identified by its often parabolic or figurative mode of expression, and in particular by the parallelisms, or repetitions of similar words or phrases, sometimes in a regular order, sometimes not, that gave rhythm to Hebrew poetry and song, and served almost as an alternative to metre. Using these critical tools Lowth also tried to identify a sublime, and divinely inspired, quality in Hebrew verse.[6]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Robert Lowth.
Title: De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum: Prælectiones Academiæ Oxonii Habitæ.
Publication Info: Oxonii: e typographeo Clarendoniano, 1763.
Edition: Other edition, with additions; [7], 507, [13] pages.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in full polished calf, gilt spine, with leather label. Test in Latin, Hebrew & Greek.
Find this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ Scott Mandelbrote, "Lowth, Robert (1710–1787)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed Oct. 7, 2013. (Subscription required for access.)
- ↑ Mandelbrote, “Lowth, Robert."
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Robert Lowth," accessed October 04, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/350052/Robert-Lowth.
- ↑ Ibid."
- ↑ Mandelbrote, “Lowth, Robert."
- ↑ Ibid.
