Frederic James Edward Raby, CB, FSA, FBA (11 December 1888 – 30 October 1966) was an English Latinist, historian and government official. While working as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, he authored two seminal books on medieval Latin poetry which established his international reputation. After retiring from government work, he was a fellow of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

(1948–55).

Early life and education

Born in Ely, Raby was the son of Edward, a

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with a classical education; the family moved to

Hoole Hoole is a suburb in the east of Chester, in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. The area is contiguous with Newton to the north and Vicars Cross to the south. The A41 road marks the suburb's eastern boundary, with the separate Hool ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

and Raby attended the King's School in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

. He studied history at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 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 ...

, from 1907 to 1910, graduating with a double first.

Career

Civil service

He passed the entry examinations for HM Civil Service in 1911 and was appointed to HM Office of Works; there, his tasks included organising the protection of

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s. Taking an interest in

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excavations, he wrote pamphlets and guidebooks on several sites of national importance. In 1927, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary, at which rank he remained until retirement in 1948. In recognition of his work, he had been appointed a

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregi ...

in 1934. He played an important role in organizing the WWII "Salvage Scheme," in which the Ministry of Works employed architects to provide timely first-aid repairs to bomb damaged historic buildings.

Scholarship and academia

Alongside his government work, Raby began his own researches; a project on the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

turned into an even larger one on Christian-Latin poetry. This became ''A History of Christian-Latin Poetry from the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages'' (1927). He followed this up with the two-volume book ''A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages'' in 1934. He edited the poems of

John of Howden John of Howden OFM (fl. 1268/9–1275), also known as John of Hoveden, was a 13th-century English Franciscan friar from the north of England, and for a time was chaplain to Queen Eleanor of Provence, wife of King Henry III of England. Works John ...

(published in 1939). As the classical scholar

Michael Lapidge Michael Lapidge, FBA (born 8 February 1942) is a scholar in the field of Medieval Latin literature, particularly that composed in Anglo-Saxon England during the period 600–1100 AD; he is an emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, a Fellow ...

has written, Raby "achieved an international reputation for his scholarship in the field of medieval Latin literature", which was "based principally" on his first two books. Having in 1941 been appointed to an honorary

fellowship 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 or professional societies, the term refers ...

, the Latinist Frederick Brittain (a fellow there) saw that after Raby retired from the civil service he was elected to a full fellowship at the college in 1948, which he held until 1955. During that time, he worked on revising ''Christian-Latin Poetry'' and ''Secular Latin Poetry''. In his last retirement, he authored ''The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse'' in 1959. Raby was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1923 (serving as one of its vice-president from 1940 to 1946) and a fellow of the British Academy in 1941. He was awarded the DLitt by the University of Cambridge in 1942. As Lapidge also wrote, Raby "put the study of medieval Latin poetry on a professional level" for the first time in England. He died in 1966; his wife Joyce (''née'' Mason), with whom he had two children, had died 24 years earlier."Raby, Frederic James Edward"
''

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'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2007). Retrieved 9 March 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raby, Frederic James Edward 1888 births 1966 deaths British Latinists Literary historians Scholars of Latin literature English civil servants Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Companions of the Order of the Bath Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the British Academy