James Duport (/duːˈpɔːrt/; 1606,Cambridge – 17 July 1679,Peterborough), in Latin booksJacobus Duportus Anglus,[1] was an Englishclassical scholar.
His father,John Duport, who was descended from an oldNorman family (the Du Ports ofCaen, who settled inLeicestershire during the reign ofHenry IV), was master ofJesus College, Cambridge. The son was educated atWestminster School and atTrinity College, where he became fellow and subsequently vicemaster.[2] In 1639 he was appointedRegius Professor of Greek, in 1641Archdeacon of Stow, in 1664Dean of Peterborough, and in 1668 Master ofMagdalene College.[2][3]
Through theEnglish Civil War, in spite of the loss of his clerical offices and eventually of his professorship, Duport continued his lectures. He is best known by hisHomeri gnomologia (1660), a collection of all the aphorisms, maxims, and remarkable opinions in theIliad andOdyssey, illustrated by quotations from theBible and classical literature. His other published works chiefly consist of translations (from the Bible andPrayer Book intoGreek) and short originalpoems, collected under the title ofHorae subsecivae orStromata. They include congratulatoryodes (inscribed to the king); funeral odes;carmina comitialia (tripos verses on different theses maintained in the schools, remarkable for their philosophical and metaphysical knowledge); sacredepigrams; and three books of miscellaneous poems (Sylvae). The character of Duports' work is not such as to appeal to modern scholars, but he deserves the credit of having done much to keep alive the study of classical literature in his day.[3]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Duport, James".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 689.| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge 1668–1679 | Succeeded by |
