Ronald Edward Latham (1907–1992) was an English classicist best known for his translation of '' On the Nature of the Universe'' by

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated in ...

. He also translated ''

The Travels of Marco Polo ''Book of the Marvels of the World'' ( Italian: , lit. 'The Million', deriving from Polo's nickname "Emilione"), in English commonly called ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from s ...

'' and

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...

's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People''.''

Education

Latham was educated at Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Literae humaniores.Editors: R. E. Latham
/ref>

Career

In 1934, he was appointed Assistant Keeper at the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was ...

.'' The London Gazette'', 7 September 1934
p.5961
/ref> His 1938 lectures at the Working Men's College were published in book form as ''In Quest of Civiliation'' (1946). In 1968, he was appointed the first editor of the '' Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources''. In 1977 he retired, and was succeeded by David Howlett.

Works

* ''In quest of civilization''. London: Jarrolds, 1946. * (tr.) ''Lucretius on the nature of the universe'' by

. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1951. * (tr.) ''The travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian'' by Marco Polo. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1958. * (ed.) ''Revised medieval Latin word-list from British and Irish sources''. London: Published for the British Academy by the Oxford University Press, 1965 * (tr.) ''Ecclesiastical history of the English people with Bede's letter to Egbert and Cuthbert's letter on the death of Bede''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latham, Ronald Edward 1907 births 1992 deaths English classical scholars English translators Latin–English translators British medievalists Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford 20th-century British translators