ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF BARLOW LECTURES

Abstract

The Barlow lectureship arose under a provision of the will of Dr Henry Clark Barlow bequeathing to University College, London, the sum of one thousand pounds in consols, the dividends of which were to be ‘applied in perpetuity to the delivery of a public annual course of lectures on the Divina Commedia, free to both sexes’. Born in 1806 at Newington Butts in Surrey, Barlow had come to Dante relatively late in life after a youth devoted mainly to medical studies, science and travel, but from about 1850, when his first paper on Dante appeared, had made him his chief pursuit and become the foremost British authority in the field of Dante criticism: his copious writings had culminated in the weighty volume of Critical historical and philosophical contributions to the study of the ‘Divina Commedia’ (London, 1864), published to mark the sixth centenary of the poet's birth, and had established his reputation in Italy itself, where he had received the title of Cavaliere del'Ordine dei SS. Maurizio e Lazzaro and played a prominent part at the 1865 Dante commemoration in Florence (which he appears to have been the first to propose holding). His will, dated 27 July 1867, which came into force at his decease in November 1876, also included the bequest that was to fornl the nucleus of the valuable Dante collection in University College Library, that of all the books, prints, drawings and other items in his own library which related to Dante With regard to the lectures, it was laid down that there should be at least twelve per year, that the lecturer should be appointed by the College for a three-year term, that the same person nlight be re-elected if the College thought proper and that the lectures were to be called ‘The Barlow Lectures on the Divina Commedia’ and advertised in The Times and The Athenaeum.