Robert Lowth

Born in Winchester in 1710, Robert Lowth studied at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, and built his reputation as a gifted scholar of the Bible and classical learning. He became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, where his lectures on Hebrew poetry drew wide attention for the way they explained its structure and parallelism with unusual clarity.

Lowth also rose high in the Church of England, serving successively as Bishop of Oxford, Bishop of St Davids, and later Bishop of London. Alongside his church career, he became one of the best-known literary scholars of his day.

Many readers remember him for A Short Introduction to English Grammar, a highly influential grammar book that helped set standards of usage for later generations. He is also remembered for his work on Isaiah and for bringing careful literary analysis to biblical writing, making old texts feel newly vivid and orderly to his readers.