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52-481: The Smith Prize fund was founded by bequest of Robert Smith upon his death in 1768, having by his will left £3,500 of South Sea Company stock to the University. Every year two or more junior Bachelor of Arts students who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy were to be awarded a prize from the fund. The prize was awarded every year from 1769 to 1998 except 1917. From 1769 to 1885,

104-587: A college fellow , which would have been the more natural course to an academic career. Instead, he was appointed headmaster of Spalding Grammar School before he was 21 years old. Edward Stillingfleet , the dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, hired Bentley as tutor to his son. This allowed Bentley to meet eminent scholars, have access to the best private library in England, and become familiar with Dean Stillingfleet. During his six years as tutor, Bentley also made

156-545: A comprehensive study of Greek and Latin writers, storing up knowledge which he would use later in his scholarship. In 1689, Stillingfleet became bishop of Worcester and Bentley's pupil went up to Wadham College, Oxford , accompanied by his tutor. At Oxford, Bentley soon met John Mill , Humphrey Hody , and Edward Bernard . He studied the manuscripts of the Bodleian , Corpus Christi , and other college libraries. He collected material for literary studies. Among these are

208-753: A corpus of the fragments of the Greek poets and an edition of the Greek lexicographers . The Oxford (Sheldonian) press was about to bring out an edition (the editio princeps ) from the unique manuscript of the Chronographia in the Bodleian Library . It was a universal history (down to AD 560) in Greek by John Malalas or "John the Rhetor" of Antioch (date uncertain, between 600 and 1000). The editor, John Mill, principal of St Edmund Hall , asked Bentley to review it and make any pertinent remarks on

260-402: A dedication of his Horace to the lord treasurer (Harley). The Crown lawyers decided against him; the case was heard (1714) and a sentence of expulsion from the mastership was drawn up. Before it was executed, the bishop of Ely died and the process lapsed. The feud continued in various forms at lower levels. In 1718 Cambridge rescinded Bentley's degrees, as punishment for failing to appear in

312-571: A grandson of Richard Cumberland the bishop of Peterborough , and himself later a bishop of the Church of Ireland . Their son Richard Cumberland developed as a prolific dramatist while earning his living as a civil servant. In old age, Bentley continued to read and enjoyed the society of his friends and of several rising scholars, including Jeremiah Markland , John Taylor , and his nephews Richard and Thomas Bentley, with whom he discussed classical subjects. He died of pleurisy on 14 July 1742, at

364-531: A letter to William Wake , Archbishop of Canterbury , Bentley announced his plan to prepare a critical edition of the New Testament . During the next four years, assisted by J. J. Wetstein , an eminent biblical critic, he collected materials for the work. In 1720 he published Proposals for a New Edition of the Greek Testament , with examples of how he intended to proceed. By comparing the text of

416-543: A man who was perfrictae frontis aut judicii imminuti (boldfaced and lacking in judgment). For Graevius's Callimachus (1697), Bentley added a collection of the fragments with notes. He wrote the Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris (1699), his major academic work, almost accidentally. In 1697, William Wotton , about to bring out a second edition of his Ancient and Modern Learning , asked Bentley to write out

468-509: A new path. With him criticism attained its majority. Where scholars had hitherto offered suggestions and conjectures, Bentley, with unlimited control over the whole material of learning, gave decisions The modern German school of philology recognised his genius. Bunsen wrote that Bentley "was the founder of historical philology." Jakob Bernays says of his corrections of the Tristia , "corruptions which had hitherto defied every attempt even of

520-549: A paper exposing the spuriousness of the Epistles of Phalaris , long a subject of academic controversy. The Christ Church editor of Phalaris, Charles Boyle , resented Bentley's paper. He had already quarrelled with Bentley in trying to get the manuscript in the royal library collated for his edition (1695). Boyle wrote a response which was accepted by the reading public, although it was much later criticised as showing only superficial learning. The demand for Boyle's book required

572-555: A royal chaplaincy and the living of Hartlebury . That same year, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society , and in 1696 earned the degree of Doctor of Divinity . The scholar Johann Georg Graevius of Utrecht made a dedication to him, prefixed to a dissertation on the seventeenth-century scholar Albert Rubens , De Vita Fl. Mallii Theodori (1694). Bentley had official apartments in St. James's Palace and his first care

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624-477: A second printing. When Bentley responded, it was with his dissertation. The truth of its conclusions was not immediately recognised, but it has a high reputation. In 1700, the commissioners of ecclesiastical patronage recommended Bentley to the Crown for the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge . He arrived an outsider and proceeded to reform the college administration. He started a programme of renovations to

676-525: Is a sort of savage nobility about his firm reliance on his own bad taste". Bentley never published his planned edition of Homer , but some of his manuscript and marginal notes are held by Trinity College. Their chief importance is in his attempt to restore the metre by the insertion of the lost digamma . According to the anonymous author of his biography in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition , Bentley

728-508: Is believed to be lost. After being ordained , Bentley was promoted to a prebendal stall in Worcester Cathedral . In 1693 the curator of the royal library became vacant, and his friends tried to obtain the position for Bentley, but did not have enough influence. The new librarian, a Mr Thynne, resigned in favour of Bentley, on condition that he receive an annuity of £130 for life out of the £200 salary. In 1695 Bentley received

780-603: The English Civil War , leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Bentley's mother, the daughter of a stonemason , had some education, and was able to give her son his first lessons in Latin . After attending grammar school in Wakefield , Bentley entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1676. He afterwards obtained a scholarship and received the degrees of BA in 1680 and MA in 1683. Bentley never became

832-762: The Vulgate with that of the oldest Greek manuscripts, Bentley proposed to restore the Greek text as received by the church at the time of the Council of Nicaea . Bentley's lead manuscript was Codex Alexandrinus , which he described as "the oldest and best in the world." The manuscript was so precious to him that he rescued it from perishing in the Ashburnham House fire of 1731, during which many other Cotton Library manuscripts were destroyed. Bentley used also manuscripts: 51 , 54 , 60 , 113 , 440 , 507 , and 508 . John Walker worked over many manuscripts for

884-566: The Bentlian, also named after him. According to the anonymous author of his biography in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical learning. Before him there were only John Selden , and, in a more restricted field, Thomas Gataker and John Pearson . Bentley inaugurated a new era of the art of criticism. He opened

936-507: The Dutch school of the period had its own tradition, it was also influenced by Bentley. His letters to Tiberius Hemsterhuis on his edition of Julius Pollux made the latter one of Bentley's most devoted admirers. Bentley inspired a following generation of scholars. Self-taught, he created his own discipline; but no contemporary English guild of learning could measure his power or check his eccentricities. He defeated his academic adversaries in

988-548: The English school of Hellenism . In 1892, A. E. Housman called Bentley "the greatest scholar that England or perhaps that Europe ever bred". Bentley's Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris , published in 1699, proved that the letters in question, supposedly written in the 6th century BCE by the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris , were actually a forgery produced by a Greek sophist in the 2nd century CE. Bentley's investigation of

1040-573: The Phalaris controversy. The attacks by Alexander Pope (he was assigned a niche in The Dunciad ), John Arbuthnot and others demonstrated their inability to appreciate his work, as they considered textual criticism as pedantry. His classical controversies also called forth Jonathan Swift 's Battle of the Books . In a university where the instruction of youth or the religious controversy of

1092-549: The University of Cambridge. The net income on the fund is annually divided equally between the Smith's Prize and the stipend of the Plumian Professor . Richard Bentley Richard Bentley FRS ( / ˈ b ɛ n t l i / ; 27 January 1662 – 14 July 1742) was an English classical scholar , critic, and theologian. Considered the "founder of historical philology ", Bentley is widely credited with establishing

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1144-517: The age of 80. Bentley left about £5,000 in his estate (which would have the buying power of nearly £500,000 in 2010). He bequeathed a few Greek manuscripts, brought from Mount Athos , to the Trinity College library and the remainder of his books and papers to his nephew Richard Bentley, a fellow of Trinity. At his own death in 1786, the younger Bentley left the papers to the Trinity College library. The British Museum eventually purchased

1196-400: The books, many of which had valuable manuscript notes, and holds them in its collection. Bentley is honoured to this day at Spalding Grammar School , where he was once headmaster. One of the 6 houses that students are sorted into is named Bentley after him, with the students wearing the colour blue on their ties and on sporting items. Furthermore, the school releases an annual magazine named

1248-527: The buildings, and used his position to promote learning. He is also credited by the British mathematician Rouse Ball with starting the first written examinations in the West in 1702, all those prior to this being oral in nature. At the same time, he antagonised the fellows, and the capital programme caused reductions in their incomes, which they resented. After ten years of stubborn but ineffectual resistance,

1300-458: The competition has played a significant role by providing a springboard for graduates considering an academic career. The majority of prize-winners have gone on to become professional mathematicians or physicists. The Rayleigh Prize was an additional prize, which was awarded for the first time in 1911. The Smith's and Rayleigh prizes were only available to Cambridge graduate students who had been undergraduates at Cambridge. The J.T. Knight Prize

1352-470: The end, publishing it in 1711 to gain public support at a critical period of the Trinity quarrel. In the preface, he declared his intention of confining his attention to criticism and correction of the text. Some of his 700 or 800 emendations have been accepted, but the majority were rejected by the early 20th century as unnecessary, although scholars acknowledged they showed his wide learning. In 1716, in

1404-516: The examiners were Stokes , Maxwell , Cayley , and Todhunter and the examinees went on each occasion to an examiner's dwelling, did a morning paper, had lunch there and continued their work on the paper in the afternoon. In 1885, the examination was renamed Part III , (now known as the Master of Advanced Study in Mathematics for students who studied outside of Cambridge before taking it) and

1456-459: The fellows appealed to the Visitor, the bishop of Ely ( John Moore ). Their petition was full of general complaints. Bentley's reply ( The Present State of Trinity College , etc., 1710) is in his most crushing style. The fellows amended their petition and added a charge of Bentley's having committed 54 breaches of the statutes. Bentley appealed directly to the Crown, and backed his application with

1508-497: The feud continued until 1738 or 1740 (about thirty years in all), Bentley remained in his post. During his mastership, except for the first two years, Bentley continuously pursued his studies, although he did not publish much. In 1709 he contributed a critical appendix to John Davies 's edition of Cicero 's Tusculan Disputations . In the following year, he published his emendations on the Plutus and Nubes of Aristophanes , and on

1560-467: The first series of lectures ("A Confutation of Atheism"), he endeavours to present Newtonian physics in a popular form, and to frame them (especially in opposition to Hobbes ) into a proof of the existence of an intelligent Creator. He had some correspondence with Newton, then living in Trinity College, Cambridge , on the subject. The second series, preached in 1694, has not been published and

1612-484: The fragments of Menander and Philemon . He published the last work under the pen name of "Phileleutherus Lipsiensis." He used it again two years later in his Remarks on a late Discourse of Freethinking , a reply to Anthony Collins the deist . The university thanked him for this work and its support of the Anglican Church and clergy. Although he had long studied Horace, Bentley wrote his edition quickly in

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1664-542: The latter. For the period up to 1940 a complete list is given in Barrow-Green (1999) including titles of prize essays from 1889 to 1940. The following includes a selection from this list. A more complete list of Rayleigh prize recipients is given in Appendix 1 ("List of Prize Winners and their Essays 1885–1940") of Robert Smith (mathematician) Robert Smith (c. 16 October 1689 – 2 February 1768)

1716-593: The lodge on 2 February 1768, and on 8 February he was buried in Trinity College Chapel , the funeral oration being delivered by Thomas Zouch . According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Smith helped to spread Isaac Newton 's ideas in Europe and "Newton's successes in optics and mechanics dominated Smith's scientific career". In his will Smith left £3500 South Sea stock to

1768-399: The mightiest, were removed by a touch of the fingers of this British Samson ". Bentley was credited with creating the English school of Hellenists, by which the 18th century was distinguished, including scholars such as Richard Dawes , Jeremiah Markland , John Taylor , Jonathan Toup , Thomas Tyrwhitt , Richard Porson , Peter Paul Dobree , Thomas Kidd and James Henry Monk . Although

1820-465: The prize was awarded for the best performance in a series of examinations. In 1854 George Stokes included an examination question on a particular theorem that William Thomson had written to him about, which is now known as Stokes' theorem . T. W. Körner notes Only a small number of students took the Smith's prize examination in the nineteenth century. When Karl Pearson took the examination in 1879,

1872-524: The prize was awarded for the best submitted essay rather than examination performance. According to Barrow-Green By fostering an interest in the study of applied mathematics, the competition contributed towards the success in mathematical physics that was to become the hallmark of Cambridge mathematics during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the competition stimulated postgraduate research in mathematics in Cambridge and

1924-745: The project, particularly in Paris with the help of the Maurists . Numerous subscribers were obtained to support publication of the work, but he never completed it. His Terence (1726) is more important than his Horace ; next to the Phalaris , this most determined his reputation. In 1726 he also published the Fables of Phaedrus and the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus . His Paradise Lost (1732), suggested by Queen Caroline , has been criticised as

1976-530: The scientific work involved to his pupil Roger Cotes . Richard Bentley was born at his maternal grandparents' home at Oulton near Rothwell , Leeds , West Yorkshire, in northern England. A blue plaque near his birthplace commemorates the fact. His father was Thomas Bentley, a yeoman farmer of Oulton. His grandfather, Captain James Bentley, is said to have suffered for the Royalist cause following

2028-404: The small circle of classical students (lacking the great critical dictionaries of modern times), it was obvious that he was a critic beyond the ordinary. In 1690, Bentley had taken deacon 's orders. In 1692 he was nominated first Boyle lecturer , a nomination repeated in 1694. He was offered the appointment a third time in 1695 but declined it, as he was involved in too many other activities. In

2080-535: The sobriquet of Old Focus, and Harmonics, or the Philosophy of Musical Sounds in 1749. Smith never married but lived with his unmarried sister Elzimar (1683–1758) in the lodge at Trinity College. Although he is often portrayed as a rather reclusive character, John Byrom 's journal shows that in the 1720s and 1730s Smith could be quite sociable. Yet ill health, particularly gout, took its toll and severely inhibited his academic work and social activities. He died at

2132-474: The steady execution of any of the major projects he had started. In 1694, he designed an edition of Philostratus , but abandoned it to Gottfried Olearius (1672–1715), "to the joy," says F. A. Wolf , "of Olearius and of no one else." He supplied Graevius with collations of Cicero , and Joshua Barnes with a warning as to the spuriousness of the Epistles of Euripides . Barnes printed the epistles anyway and declared that no one could doubt their authenticity but

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2184-604: The subject is still regarded as a landmark of textual criticism . He also showed that the sound represented in transcriptions of some Greek dialects by the letter digamma appeared also in Homeric poetry, even though it was not represented there in writing by any letter. Bentley became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1700. His autocratic manner and contemptuous treatment of the college fellows led to extensive controversy and litigation, but he remained in that post until his death, more than four decades later. In 1717 Bentley

2236-587: The text. Bentley wrote the Epistola ad Johannem Millium , which is about a hundred pages long and was included at the end of the Oxford Malalas (1691). That short treatise placed Bentley ahead of all living English scholars. The ease with which he restored corrupted passages, the certainty of his emendation and command over the relevant material, are in a style totally different from the careful and laborious learning of Hody , Mill or Edmund Chilmead . To

2288-541: The value had risen to about £30, and by 1940, the value had risen by a further one pound to £31. By 1998, a Smith's Prize was worth around £250. In 2007, the value of the three prize funds was roughly £175,000. In 1998 the Smith Prize, Rayleigh Prize and J. T. Knight Prize were replaced by the Smith-Knight Prize and Rayleigh-Knight Prize , the standard for the former being higher than that required for

2340-410: The vice-chancellor's court in a civil suit. It was not until 1724 that he had them restored under the law. In 1733 the fellows of Trinity again brought Bentley to trial before the bishop of Ely (then Thomas Greene ), and he was sentenced to deprivation. The college statutes required the sentence to be executed by the vice-master Richard Walker , who was a friend of Bentley and refused to act. Although

2392-497: The weakest of his work. He suggested that the poet John Milton had employed both an amanuensis and an editor, who were responsible for clerical errors and interpolations, but it is unclear whether Bentley believed his own position. A. E. Housman , who called him "the greatest scholar that England or perhaps that Europe ever bred" nevertheless criticised his poetic sensibility severely: "we are not all so easily found out as Bentley, because we have not Bentley's intrepid candour. There

2444-409: Was an English mathematician. Smith was probably born at Lea near Gainsborough , the son of John Smith, the rector of Gate Burton , Lincolnshire and his wife Hannah Cotes. After attending Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Gainsborough (now Queen Elizabeth's High School ) he entered Trinity College, Cambridge , in 1708, and becoming minor fellow in 1714, major fellow in 1715 and senior fellow in 1739,

2496-604: Was appointed as the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge . As professor at Cambridge, Bentley introduced the first competitive written examinations in a Western university. A fellow of the Royal Society , Bentley was interested in natural theology and the new physical sciences , subjects on which he corresponded with Isaac Newton . Bentley was in charge of the second edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica , although he delegated most of

2548-583: Was chosen Master in 1742, in succession to Richard Bentley . From 1716 to 1760 he was Plumian Professor of Astronomy , and he died in the Master's Lodge at Trinity. In February 1719 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . Besides editing two works by his cousin, Roger Cotes , who was his predecessor in the Plumian chair, he published A Compleat System of Opticks in 1738, which gained him

2600-591: Was established in 1974 for Cambridge graduates who had been undergraduates at other universities. The prize commemorates J.T. Knight (1942–1970), who had been an undergraduate student at Glasgow and a graduate student at Cambridge. He was killed in a motor car accident in Ireland in April 1970. Originally, in 1769, the prizes were worth £25 each and remained at that level for 100 years. In 1867, they fell to £23 and in 1915 were still reported to be worth that amount. By 1930,

2652-575: Was self-assertive and presumptuous, which alienated some people. But, James Henry Monk , Bentley's biographer, charged him (in his first edition, 1830) with an indecorum of which he was not guilty. Bentley seemed to inspire mixed feelings of admiration and repugnance. In 1701, Bentley married Joanna (died 1740), daughter of Sir John Bernard, 2nd Baronet of Brampton, Huntingdonshire . They had three children together: Richard (1708–1782), an eccentric, playwright and artist, and two daughters. Their daughter Johanna married Denison Cumberland in 1728,

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2704-795: Was the royal library in Ashburnham House . He worked to restore the collection from a dilapidated condition. He persuaded the Earl of Marlborough to ask for additional rooms in the palace for the books. This was granted, but Marlborough kept them for his personal use. Bentley enforced the law, ensuring that publishers delivered nearly one thousand volumes that had been purchased but not delivered. The University of Cambridge commissioned Bentley to obtain Greek and Latin fonts for their classical books; he had these made in Holland. He assisted John Evelyn in his Numismata . Bentley did not settle down to

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