Jonathan Toup

Jonathan Oannes Toup (1713 - January 19, 1785), English classical scholar and critic, was born at St Ives[?] in Cornwall, and was educated at a private school and Exeter College, Oxford.

Having taken orders, he became rector of St Martin's Exeter, where he died on the 19th of January 1785. Toup established his reputation by his Emendationes in Suidam (1760-1766, followed in 1775 by a supplement) and his edition of Longinus (1778), including notes and emendations by Ruhnken.

The excellence of Toup's scholarship was "known to the learned throughout Europe" (so epitaph on the tablet in the church of East Looe set up by the delegates of the Clarendon Press), but his overbearing manner and extreme self-confidence made him many enemies.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.