Walter Ashburner (1864-1936)

Walter Ashburner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Samuel Ashburner, a railway engineer, and Anne Mead Barstow. The family moved to England in 1872 and Walter was educated at University College School and at University College London. From 1883 to 1887 he studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford. After graduation he remained in Oxford as a fellow of Merton College. In 1892 he was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn. While he lived in London, he served on the Committee of Management and Council of University College and it may be through this that he met and became a friend of A.E. Housman: they maintained a correspondence over many years.

Ashburner had a great love of Italy and Italian culture and in 1903 he retired and moved to Florence where he was one of those instrumental in the establishment of the British Institute of Florence in 1917. He returned to Oxford in 1926 as Professor of Jurisprudence but was forced to resign for reasons of health and returned to Florence where he died in February 1936.

While in Italy, Ashburner continued to pursue his academic interests, publishing a notable edition of Rhodian sea law in 1909 and a facsimile reproduction of an important Aristotle manuscript in 1927. He had a great love of books, particularly early printed works, and built an important collection, which, following his death, was sold by Hoepli in Lucerne in 1938.