Charles Brink

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Charles Oscar Brink
Liverpool University
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Main interestsHorace
Aristotle
Tacitus
Notable worksHorace on Poetry

Charles Oscar Brink

Cambridge University.[2]

After an education and an early career as a

Gonville and Caius College
.

Education and early career

In 1907, Brink, then Karl Oskar Levy, was born into a secular Jewish family in

A.E. Housman.[3] He obtained his doctorate in 1933 with a dissertation entitled Stil und Form der pseudaristotelischen Magna moralia. For the next five years he worked on the staff of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich.[4]

Oxford, St. Andrews and Liverpool

In the aftermath of Adolf Hitler's seizure of power, Brink began to seek employment outside of Germany. Aided by W. D. Ross, he was able to secure a position with the Oxford Latin Dictionary and relocated to Oxford in 1938. In June 1940, Brink and his family were interned at Peel, Isle of Man, because of their German descent. After his release, he started working as a classics tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later acted as classics master for the affiliated Magdalen College School. It was during his time at Oxford that he met Daphne Hope Harvey, whom he married in 1942. They had three sons.[5]

In 1948, Brink accompanied fellow Oxford classicist

University of St. Andrews. During his time in Scotland, his reputation as a classical scholar in Britain was much furthered by articles on Tacitus. He also began work on an edition of the philosophical works of Cicero. In 1951, Brink was appointed to the chair of Latin at the University of Liverpool. Though his tenure was to be a short one, he fostered a friendship with F. W. Walbank centred around the study of Polybius.[6]

Cambridge

After only three years at Liverpool, Brink was made

Gonville and Caius College and took an active role in the running of the college. At a time when verse and prose composition still occupied a central place in the study of the Classics, Brink became a leading voice for the shift towards literary critic modes of scholarship. His tenure as Kennedy Professor saw work on his magnum opus: a comprehensive study of Horace's work on poetry. It was published in three volumes, appearing in 1963, 1971 and 1982 respectively.[7]

After his retirement, Brink remained an influential figure at Cambridge. He was involved in David Robinson's effort to establish a new college in the university and became a trustee of Robinson's donation. After the college received its royal charter in 1985, he was elected to an honorary fellowship. He also intended to bequeath to the college his vast personal library. The collection is now housed at the University of Tokyo after Robinson College declined the gift.[8][9]

Brink died on March 2, 1994, in Cambridge, where he and his wife are commemorated in the

Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground.[10]

Selected publications

  • Horace on Poetry. Volume I: Prolegomena to the Literary Epistles, Cambridge, 1963.
  • Horace on Poetry. Volume II: The Ars Poetica, Cambridge, 1971.
  • Horace on Poetry. Volume III: The Letters to Augustus and Florus, Cambridge, 1982.
  • English Classical Scholarship: Historical Reflections on Bentley, Porson, and Housman, Cambridge, 1986.

References

  1. ^ Rubenstein, Jolles & Rubenstein 2011, p. 125.
  2. ^ Hall, J. B. (16 March 1994). "Obituary: Professor Charles Brink". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  3. ^ Jocelyn 1997, pp. 320–325.
  4. ^ Cannadine 2004, "Brink, Charles Oscar".
  5. ^ Jocelyn 1997, pp. 328–331.
  6. ^ Jocelyn 1997, pp. 333–334.
  7. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 8 February 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help
    )
  8. ^ Jocelyn 1997, pp. 345–346.
  9. ^ Jocelyn 1997, p. 349.
  10. ^ Goldie 2009, pp. 62–63.

Bibliography

  • Cannadine, David, ed. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford.
  • Goldie, M. (2009). Churchill College Cambridge: The Guide. Cambridge.
  • Jocelyn, H. D. (1997). "Charles Oscar Brink". Proceedings of the British Academy. 94: 319–354.
  • Rubenstein, W. D.; Jolles, M.; Rubenstein, H. L. (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Basingstoke.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Cambridge University

1954–74 		Succeeded by
E.J. Kenney
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