Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley, (13 December 1861 – 12 October 1931) was a British librarian who was

Bodley's Librarian The head of the Bodleian Library, the main library at the University of Oxford, is known as Bodley's Librarian: Sir Thomas Bodley, as founder, gave his name to both the institution and the position. Although there had been a university library a ...

(head of the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

) from 1919 until a couple of months before his death. He was also a leading Semitic scholar.

Early life and career

Cowley was the fourth son (and one of seventeen children) of a customs house agent and his wife from

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

in South London. He studied at St Paul's School and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

, where ill-health and an interest in oriental languages impaired his study of the

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, and he obtained only a fourth-class degree. He then studied in Switzerland to improve his French and German, before teaching modern languages at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

then Magdalen College School (1885 to 1889 and 1890 to 1895 respectively). Cowley worked with

Alfred Neubauer Alfred Neubauer (29 March 1891 – 22 August 1980) was the racing manager of the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955. Biography Neubauer's father, Karl Neubauer, was a furniture-maker in Neutitschein (), which then was part of the ...

, sub-librarian at the

, from 1890 onwards on the Samaritan liturgy; the results were published in two volumes in 1909. He was appointed assistant sub-librarian in 1896. Together, Cowley and Neubauer published ''The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus'' (1897) and ''Facsimiles of the Fragments Hitherto Recovered of the Book of Ecclesiasticus in Hebrew'' (1901) as well as the ''Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library'' (1906). When Neubauer left the Bodleian in 1899, Cowley became sub-librarian and also taught rabbinical Hebrew literature as well as working on a catalogue of the library's Sanskrit collections and (with Neubauer) the second volume of the library's catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts. He was appointed as a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, in May 1902, and was awarded a

D.Litt. Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

by the university in 1908. In 1912 he gave the annual

Sandars Lectures The Sandars Readership in Bibliography is an annual lecture series given at Cambridge University. Instituted in 1895 at the behest of Samuel Sandars of Trinity College (1837–1894), who left a £2000 bequest to the University, the series has con ...

in bibliography at the

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, choosing as his subject the

Elephantine papyri The Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca consist of thousands of documents from the Egyptian border fortresses of Elephantine and Aswan, which yielded hundreds of papyri and ostraca in hieratic and demotic Egyptian, Aramaic, Koine Greek, Latin and Cop ...

Bodley's Librarian

He returned to Oxford as

, succeeding

Falconer Madan Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. Early life and education Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at ...

, in 1919 (the year in which he was appointed as a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

). He abandoned, for reasons of expense, the publication of the catalogue of printed books and began a new catalogue on printed slips for post-1919 publications. He worked towards a united management system for the libraries of the university, with the Bodleian taking over other libraries as dependent institutions. In 1923, a Bodleian assistant librarian was placed in charge of the law library; in 1927, the

Radcliffe Library The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Being officially part of the Bodleian Libraries, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences a ...

and

Indian Institute The Indian Institute was an institute within the University of Oxford. It was started by Sir Monier Monier-Williams in 1883 to provide training for the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj. The institute's building is located in central Oxfo ...

Library were annexed to the Bodleian; and in 1929 the library of

Rhodes House Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is Listed building#En ...

was inaugurated. Space for acquisitions was a perennial problem; coins and engraved portraits were transferred to the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, and Cowley's preferred option of an extension to the Bodleian opposite its main site was eventually accepted just before he retired. During his time as Bodley's Librarian, he continued to pursue his own research interests, and was regarded as one of the leading Semitic scholars of the time. In 1923 he published ''The Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century'', a revision of his 1906 work, incorporating the critical results of the best-known Semitic scholars, his original text largely unaltered. He translated from

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

the last complete significant edition of

Wilhelm Gesenius Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (3 February 178623 October 1842) was a German orientalist, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, Lutheran theologian, Biblical scholar and critic. Biography Gesenius was born at Nordhausen. In 1803 he bec ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

grammar, revised by

Emil Kautzsch Emil Friedrich Kautzsch (4 September 1841 – 7 May 1910) was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic, born at Plauen, Saxony. Biography He was educated at Leipzig, in whose theological faculty he was appointed privatdozent (1869) and p ...

; this edition is still widely used in Hebrew language studies around the world in the 21st century.

Illness and death

Cowley had an operation in May 1931 to remove a tumour. He convalesced in hospital until early August. He was awarded a knighthood in June, and resigned from the Bodleian on grounds of ill-health on 31 July. He suffered a stroke in Eastbourne during his recovery, and a second stroke after his return to Oxford, where he died on 12 October 1931. The bulk of his estate was left to the university for the use of the Bodleian. He had married in 1913, and had adopted two sons. He left a reputation of having been a "great pioneer" of Elephantine studies.

Works

* , edited and enlarged by

, translated from German by Arthur Ernest Cowley * Edited, with translation and notes. By A. Cowley

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowley, Arthur Ernest 1861 births 1931 deaths English librarians People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Knights Bachelor Fellows of the British Academy Bodley's Librarians Schoolteachers from London People from Sydenham, London