author
E. A. (Elias Avery) Lowe
1879–1969
A pioneering scholar of early Latin handwriting, he helped transform the study of ancient and medieval manuscripts. His work gave generations of readers and researchers a clearer map of the Latin book world before the ninth century.
1 Audiobook
A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved in the Pierpont Morgan Library New York
by E. A. (Elias Avery) Lowe, Edward Kennard Rand
About the author
Born in Kalvarija in 1879 and later emigrating to the United States, E. A. Lowe became one of the leading palaeographers of his time. He studied at Cornell University and spent much of his career at Oxford before later joining the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
He is best remembered for Codices Latini Antiquiores, a major guide to surviving Latin manuscripts written before the ninth century. That long-running project set a standard for the description and comparison of early manuscripts and made Lowe an essential figure in the study of Latin script and book culture.
Lowe was married to the translator Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, and his scholarly reputation remained strong long after his death in 1969. Today he is still closely associated with the careful, patient work of reading the history of Europe through its oldest books.