Musei Oxoniensis litterarii conspectus

The idea for this periodical, first mooted by Thomas Burgess (1756-1837), who was then a classical scholar at Oxford, in correspondence with Thomas Randolph, the university’s vice-chancellor, was initially rejected. Seemingly the inclusion of English text was too radical at a time when Latin was still standard. Nevertheless, two issues, reissued in this volume, were published between 1792 and 1797. Burgess had, however, curtailed his scholarly career in 1791, following his ecclesiastical patron, Shute Barrington, north to Durham. Henceforth he concentrated on his church work, becoming in 1803 bishop of St David’s - where he promoted the use of Welsh in his parishes - and subsequently of Salisbury. This volume, which includes papers on both Ancient Greek and New Testament texts, illuminates the close relationship between classical scholarship and Anglicanism in the period, as well as the fitful early development of specialist academic journals - a genre not fully established until the late nineteenth century.