Thucydides, recensuit Joannes Guilielmus Donaldson

John William Donaldson (1811-1861), philologist and biblical critic. Educated at University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he later became a fellow, Donaldson was appointed headmaster of King Edward's School in Bury St Edmunds in 1841. After resigning in 1855, he returned to Cambridge, dedicating himself to literary work and private teaching. Donaldson was an early advocate of comparative philology in England. His most influential work, The New Cratylus (1839), applied comparative linguistic principles to Greek, largely building on but also advancing beyond Bopp's grammar. In Varronianus (1844), he extended this method to Latin, Umbrian, and Oscan. His controversial Jashar (1854), written in Latin, attempted a reconstruction of the biblical Book of Jashar and drew criticism for its approach to biblical inspiration. Other notable works include editions of Pindar and Sophocles, and grammars of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. ODNB