Nicholas Mark Horsfall () was a British scholar of

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...

. Educated at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

, and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 1 ...

, he worked as a lecturer at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, but retired in 1987. He was a specialist on the works of the Roman poet

Vergil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the ...

and published five commentaries (2000–2013) on individual books of his ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

''. This series of commentaries was described by the Latinist James O'Hara as "one of the most remarkably productive and rich periods of publication of any modern classicist".

Life and career

Nicholas Mark Horsfall was born on 19 September 1946. His parents were Thomas and Sophie Mendelssohn-Horsfall. His father was a member of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

and a descendant of the philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or ' ...

. Sophie, born Szapiro, came from a Jewish German-Russian background and had fled from Berlin to the United Kingdom in 1939. She worked as an interpreter of Russian for the BBC. Having been educated at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It derives from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the 1066 Norman Conquest, as d ...

in London, Horsfall went on to study Classics at

. In 1971 he earned a D.Phil. from

, with a dissertation on Book 7 of

's ''

''. His doctoral work was supervised by the Latinists R. A. B. Mynors, Robin Nisbet, and

Margaret Hubbard Margaret Hubbard (16 June 1924 – 28 April 2011) was an Australian-born British classical scholar specialising in philology. Career Hubbard excelled during her school career at Adelaide High School, which she attended on receipt of a Government ...

. In 1971, Horsfall began working as a lecturer at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, where he was influenced by the Latinists Otto Skutsch and George Goold. In 1987, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he retired from teaching and moved to the

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th ''rione'' of Rome: it is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin ''trans Tiberim'', literally 'beyond the Tiber'. Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lio ...

neighbourhood of Rome. After his return to the United Kingdom in 2000, Horsfall lived first near

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

and then in Strathconon, a village in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland ...

. He had a stroke on 25 December 2018 and died 1 January 2019.

Work

Horsfall specialised in the works of the Roman poet Vergil, whose ''Aeneid'' was the subject of his

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a 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 world's second-oldest university in contin ...

doctoral thesis; he published a commentary on ''Aeneid'' Book 7 in 2000, followed by Books 11 (2003), 3 (2006), 2 (2008), and 6 (2013)"one of the most remarkably productive and rich periods of publication of any modern classicist", according to the Latinist James O'Hara, who compared Horsfall to "taxing geniuses in other fields like

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 193 ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

, or

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

." At his death he was preparing a commentary on Book 1. He also published three discursive books on Vergil: ''Virgilio: l'epopea in alambicco'' (1991, in Italian), ''A Companion to the Study of Virgil'' (1995, as the editor), and ''The Epic Distilled: Studies in the Composition of the Aeneid'' (2016). A selection of his papers was printed in 2020 by Oxford University Press: ''Fifty years at the Sibyl's Heels. Selected Papers on Virgil and Rome'' (ed. A. Crofts).

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horsfall, Nicholas 1946 births 2019 deaths English people of German-Jewish descent British people of German-Russian descent Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford British Latinists Academics of University College London People educated at Westminster School, London British classical scholars Scholars of Latin literature Scholars of epic poetry