Thomas Taylor
From Freepedia
Thomas Taylor (1758 - November 1835) was an English translator, the first to translate into English the complete works of Aristotle and of Plato, as well as the Orphic fragments. The texts that he used had been edited since the 16th century, but were interrupted by lacunae; Taylor's thorough understanding of the Platonists informed his suggested emendations, which, when better manuscripts have been found, were often proved just. His translations were influential to William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth. In American editions they were read by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and G.R.S. Mead, secretary of Mme Blavatsky the founder of Theosophy.
Born in London, Taylor was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and devoted himself to the study of the classics and of mathematics. After being a bank clerk, he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Art (precursor to the Royal Society of Arts), in which capacity he made many influential friends, who furnished the means for publishing his various translations, which besides Plato and Aristotle, include Proclus, Porphyry, Apuleius, Ocellus Lucanus and other Neoplatonists and Pythagoreans. His aim was the translation of all the untranslated writings of the ancient Greek philosophers.
Taylor also published several original works on philosophy and mathematics.
External links
This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
Categories: A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature | British people stubs | British classical scholars | 1758 births | 1835 deaths
