Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duppa, Richard

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DUPPA, RICHARD (1770–1831), artist and author, son of William Duppa of Culmington, Shropshire, studied art in Rome in youth, and showed himself a skilful draughtsman. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, 9 Nov. 1807, aged 37; became a student of the Middle Temple, 7 Feb. 1810; graduated LL.B. at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1814; wrote largely on botanical, artistic, and political topics; was elected F.S.A.; and died in Lincoln's Inn, 11 July 1831. A relative of the same name died at Cheney Longville, Shropshire, on the previous 25 Feb. while high sheriff of Radnorshire (Gent. Mag. 1831, i. 284). An elder brother, John Wood Duppa (1762–1840), was rector of Puddlestone, Herefordshire.

Duppa's chief works were:

1. 'A Journal of … the subversion of the Ecclesiastical Government in 1798,' London, 1799, 3rd ed. 1807.
2. 'A Selection of twelve heads from the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo,' 1801, imp. folio.
3. 'Heads from the Fresco Pictures of Raffaele in the Vatican,' 1803, fol.
4. 'Memoirs [1742–57] of a Literary and Political Character,' i.e. Richard Glover (1712–1785) [q.v.], whom Duppa seeks to identify with Junius, London, 1803.
5. The Life and Literary Works of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, with his Poetry and Letters,' London, 1806, with fifty etched plates; 2nd ed. 1807, 3rd ed. 1816 (reissued in Bohn's 'European Library,' 1846, and in Bohn's 'Illustrated Library,' 1869).
6. 'Elements of [Linnæan] Botany,' 1809.
7. 'Illustrations of the Lotus of Antiquity,' London, 1813, 4to; reissued in folio, 1816, in an edition of twenty-five copies (cf. Pritzel, Thes. Lit. Bot. 2nd ed. p. 95).
8. 'Classes and Orders of Botany,' illustrated 1816.
9. 'Dr. Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales in 1774,' first printed and elaborately edited by Duppa in 1816 with Mrs. Piozzi's help (incorporated in Croker's (Boswell).
10. 'Life of Raffaele,' 1816.
11. 'Outlines of Michael Angelo's Works, with Plans of St. Peter's, Rome,' 1816.
12. 'Miscellaneous Observations on the Continent,' 1825; reissued in 1828 as 'Travels in Italy, Sicily, and the Lipari Islands.'
13. 'Maxims and Reflections,' 1830. Duppa also issued pamphlets on literary copyright (1813), on Junius (1814), and on the price of corn (1815), besides many classical school-books. His library was sold 3-7 Sept. 1831.

[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gent. Mag. 1831, ii. 567; Redgrave's Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]