author
Samuel Musgrave
1732–1780
An English classical scholar and physician, he is remembered for learned editions of Greek and Roman writers and for a political controversy that damaged his career late in life.
1 Audiobook
The Musgrave controversy : being a collection of curious and interesting papers, on the subject of the late peace
by Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d' Eon de Beaumont, Samuel Musgrave
About the author
Born in Washfield, Devon, in 1732, Samuel Musgrave studied at Oxford and went on to become both a physician and a noted classical scholar. He spent several years abroad on a Radcliffe travelling fellowship, especially in the Netherlands and France, building the learning that later shaped his editions and notes on ancient authors.
Musgrave is best known for his scholarly work on Greek tragedy and other classical texts, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He later practiced medicine in Exeter and Plymouth, though his medical career never seems to have matched his academic reputation.
His name also became tied to a political accusation involving secret payments and the politician Henry Luttrell. The charge was not upheld, and the episode badly hurt Musgrave's prospects; he spent his final years in London, where he died in 1780.