Elmsley, Peter
An English classical scholar, born in 1773. He was educated at Westminster School and at
Merton College, Oxford, receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1794. He took orders in 1798, but
inheriting a fortune from an uncle, he decided to devote himself to literary studies and to
Greek literature in particular. During a prolonged residence in Edinburgh he contributed
many papers on classical topics to the
Edinburgh Review. In 1816 he visited
Italy in search of classical MSS., and spent the winter of 1818 in researches at the
Laurentian Library at Florence. In the following year he did good work in deciphering some of
the papyri found in Herculaneum, assisting Sir Humphry Davy. In 1823 he was made Principal of
St. Alban's Hall and Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. He died
at Oxford, March 8th, 1825.
Elmsley is best known by his critical editions of the
Alcestis, Andromeda, Bacchae,
Electra, Heraclidae, and
Medea of Euripides; of the
Oedipus
Tyrannus and
Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles; and of the
Acharnians of Aristophanes
(1809). He also edited Thucydides. See
Elmsleiana Critica (1833).
