E. A. (Elias Avery) Lowe

Born in 1879 and known in print as E. A. Lowe, he became one of the best-known experts in Latin palaeography—the study of old handwriting and manuscripts. After coming to the United States as a boy, he studied at City College of New York and Cornell, then continued advanced work in Germany under the noted scholar Ludwig Traube.

Lowe taught at Oxford for many years and later joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is especially remembered for major works on Beneventan script and for founding Codices Latini Antiquiores, an ambitious guide to surviving Latin manuscripts written before the ninth century.

His career was built on close, patient attention to books as physical objects, and his research shaped how later scholars date, classify, and understand medieval manuscripts. He was also married to the translator Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, linking two influential literary and scholarly careers in one family.