Regius Professor of Greek (Cambridge)

The Regius Professorship of Greek is one of the oldest professorships at the University of Cambridge. The Regius Professor chair was founded in 1540^[1] by Henry VIII with a stipend of £40 per year, subsequently increased in 1848 by a canonry of Ely Cathedral.

Regius Professors of Greek

1. 1540 John Cheke
2. 1547 Nicholas Carr
3. 1549 Francisco de Enzinas, alias Dryander
4. 1562 Bartholomew Dodington
5. 1585 Andrew Downes
6. 1625 Robert Creighton, sr.
7. 1639 James Duport
8. 1654 Ralph Widdrington
9. 1660 Isaac Barrow
10. 1663 James Valentine
11. 1666 Robert Creighton, jr.
12. 1672 Thomas Gale
13. 1672 John North
14. 1674 Benjamin Pulleyn
15. 1686 Michael Payne
16. 1695 Joshua Barnes
17. 1712 Thomas Pilgrim
18. 1726 Walter Taylor
19. 1743 William Fraigneau
20. 1750 Thomas Francklin
21. 1759 Michael Lort
22. 1771 James Lambert
23. 1780 William Cooke
24. 1792 Richard Porson
25. 1808 James Henry Monk
26. 1823 Peter Paul Dobree
27. 1825 James Scholefield
28. 1853 William Hepworth Thompson
29. 1867 Benjamin Hall Kennedy
30. 1889 Richard Claverhouse Jebb
31. 1906 Henry Jackson
32. 1921 Alfred Chilton Pearson
33. 1928 Donald Struan Robertson
34. 1950 Denys Lionel Page
35. 1974 Geoffrey Stephen Kirk
36. 1984 Eric Handley
37. 1994 Patricia Elizabeth Easterling
38. 2001 Richard Lawrence Hunter^[2]
39. 2023 Tim Whitmarsh^[3]

Official coat of arms

According to a grant of 1590, the office of Regius Professor of "Greke" at Cambridge has a coat of arms with the following blazon: Per chevron argent and sable, in chief the two Greek letters Alpha and Omega of the second, and in base a cicada (grasshopper) of the first, on a chief gules a lion passant guardant Or, charged on the side with the letter G sable. The crest has an owl.^[4]

Coat of arms of Regius Professor of Greek

Crest on a wreath "silver and sables," an owl argent, legs, beak, and ears or Escutcheon Per chevron argent and sable, in chief the two Greek letters Α (Alpha) and Ω (Omega) of the second, and in base a "cicado" or grasshopper of the first, on a chief gules, a lion passant guardant or, charged on the side with the letter G sable.

Sources

1. "The Regius Professor of Greek" (PDF). University of Cambridge. 2020.
2. "Elections and appointments". Cambridge University Reporter (5808). 4 May 2000. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
3. "Elections and appointments" (PDF). Cambridge University Reporter (6683). 18 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
4. A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies (1909), pp. 587-588.

• Concise Dictionary of National Biography
  • Cheke (to 1551), Carr, Dodington (to 1585), Downes (to 1624), Creighton (to 1639), Duport (to 1654), Widdrington, Barrow, Barnes, Fraigneau (to 1750), Francklin (to 1759), Cooke (to 1792), Dobree (to 1725)

See also

• Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford)
• Regius Professor of Greek (Dublin)