The Correspondence of Richard Bentley

The celebrated classicist Richard Bentley (1662-1742) was elected Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1700. He corresponded with many respected thinkers and scholars, based in Paris, Naples, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg and elsewhere around the world. These two volumes of his correspondence, first published in 1842 and now reissued, provide fascinating insights into Bentley’s thought and the intellectual world he inhabited. Volume 1 contains letters, mostly in Latin, written and received between 1689 and 1712. They appear in chronological order, and shed light on relationships between scholars of different generations and nationalities, and often opposing religious, moral, political, and literary opinions. Exceptionally noteworthy in this volume is Bentley’s correspondence with Archbishop Wake and the Earl of Oxford, as well as four letters from Sir Isaac Newton.