Leighton Durham Reynolds

Leighton Reynolds (1930–1999) was Emeritus Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford, 1996–97, and Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Brasenose College, Oxford, 1957–97.^[1] As well as teaching generations of Oxford students, he was twice called upon to stand as Acting Principal of the college, and also wrote and edited several books on Latin authors, and on the transmission of classical literature.

He also had a passion for botany, and was an accomplished carpenter. He enjoyed academic spells at Cornell, Austin and Princeton Universities.^[2] Married to Susan Buchanon in 1962, he had a son and two daughters.

Academic career

Educated at Caerphilly Grammar School in Wales, where he became head boy,^[3] he graduated with first-class honours from University College, Cardiff, where he struck up a lifelong friendship with the Latinist RG Austin, whose commentary on Virgil's Aeneid VI he completed following Austin's death in 1974. He took a further Classics degree at St John's College, Cambridge, where he won two more firsts, and was elected to a Craven fellowship.^[4]

After two years' National Service in the RAF (1952–54), during which he qualified as a Russian interpreter, he became Junior Research Fellow at Queen's College, Oxford. In 1957 he was elected Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he remained until his retirement in 1997. During his time at Brasenose he held posts as Senior Dean and twice as Acting Principal of the college, and in 1996 was made Emeritus Professor of Classical Languages and Literature.^[5] In 1987 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy.^[6]

He was Editor of the Classical Review 1975–87, and author and editor of books on classical authors and on the transmission of classical literature.

Publications

• Seneca Epistulae Vol I (Oxford University Press, 1965)
• Seneca Dialogues (Oxford University Press, 1977)
• Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (with NG Wilson) (Oxford University Press, 1968)
• Texts and Transmission (Oxford University Press, 1983)
• Sallust: Catilina, Iugurtha, Historiarum Fragmenta Selecta, Appendix Sallustiana (Oxford University Press, 1991)
• Cicero De Finibus (Oxford University Press, 1998)

References