Richard John Tarrant is an American

classicist 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 Emeritus Pope Professor of Latin at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He is an expert on the textual criticism and the transmission of Latin poetry.

Career

A native of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Tarrant was educated at

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

, where he obtained a BA in 1966. He then moved to

Oxford University 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 second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and graduated with a DPhil from Corpus Christi College (1972). From 1970, he taught at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, taking up a position at Harvard University in 1982. In his time at the department, he served as its chairman (1988–94) and as the acting Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1995-6). Tarrant has held visiting fellowships at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Selected publications

*''Seneca: Agamemnon'', Cambridge, 1977. *''P. Ovidi Nasonis: Metamorphoses'', Oxford, 2004. *''Virgil: Aeneid Book XII,'' Cambridge, 2012. *''Texts, Editors, and Readers: Methods and Problems in Latin Textual Criticism'', Cambridge, 2016.

References

Works cited

*Oakley, S. P. (2016) Review of Tarrant (2016), ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 106, 360–1. *Tarrant, R. J. (2016) ''Texts, Editors, and Readers: Methods and Problems in Latin Textual Criticism'', Cambridge. Classical scholars of Harvard University 20th-century American male writers Living people American Latinists Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the American Philosophical Society {{US-academic-bio-stub