Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bailey, James

674962Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 02 — Bailey, James1885Stanley Lane-Poole

BAILEY, JAMES (d. 1864), classical scholar, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. 1814, M.A. 1823, and obtained the Browne medals for Greek ode and epigrams, and the members' prizes in 1815 and 1816. He was for many years master of the Perse grammar school, Cambridge, from which he retired on a pension. In 1850 he received a further pension of 100l. per annum from the queen, on the recommendation of Bishops Maltby and Kaye. Besides his numerous contributions to the 'Classical Journal,' Bailey published 'An Annotated Edition of Dalzel's Analecta Græca Minora' (1835); 'Passages from the Greek Comic Poets,' which had been translated into English by R. Cumberland, Fawkes, and Wrangham, with notes (1840); proof-sheets of this work, with autograph letter to Archdeacon Wrangham, are in the British Museum; a work on the 'Origin and Nature of Hieroglyphics and the Greek inscription on the Rosetta Stone' (1816). He is best known for his edition of 'Forcellini's Latin Dictionary,' 2 vols. (1826), in which he translated the Italian explanations into English, incorporated the appendices of Forcellini with the main work, and added an extensive Auctarium of his own. Bailey died in London, 13 Feb. 1864.

[Gent. Mag. 3rd series, vol. xvi. 535; Cat. Brit. Mus.]

A. G-n.