GARDNER, PERCY (1846–), English classical archaeologist, was born in London, and was educated at the City of London school and Christ’s College, Cambridge (fellow, 1872). He was Disney professor of archaeology at Cambridge from 1880 to 1887, and was then appointed professor of classical archaeology at Oxford, where he had a stimulating influence on the study of ancient, and particularly Greek, art. He also became prominent as an historical critic on Biblical subjects. Among his works are: Types of Greek Coins (1883): A Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias (with F. Imhoof-Blumer, 1887); New Chapters in Greek History (1892), an account of excavations in Greece and Asia Minor; Manual of Greek Antiquities (with F. B. Jevons, 2nd ed. 1898); Grammar of Greek Art (1905); Exploratio Evangelica (1899), on the origin of Christian belief; A Historic View of the New Testament (1901); Growth of Christianity (1907).
His brother, Ernest Arthur Gardner (1862–), educated at the City of London school and Caius College, Cambridge (fellow, 1885), is also well known as an archaeologist. From 1887 to 1895 he was director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, and later became professor of archaeology at University College, London. His publications include: Introduction to Greek Epigraphy (1887); Ancient Athens (1902); Handbook of Greek Sculpture (1905); Six Greek Sculptors (1910). He was elected first Public Orator of London University in 1910.