All Scholars
MACGREGOR, Alexander Paul, Jr.
- Date of Birth: May 10, 1942
- Born City: Chicago
- Born State/Country: IL
- Date of Death: August 14, 2013
- Death City: Chicago
- Death State/Country: IL
- Married: Katherine Gail Johnson, 1968
- Education:
B.A. Xavier University, 1963; M.A. University of Chicago, 1964; Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1969.
- Dissertation:
“A Critical Edition of Seneca’s ‘Phaedra,’ Employing New Manuscripts from the British Museum” (Chicago, 1969).
- Professional Experience:
Instr. classics, William & Mary, 1966-71; asst. prof. classics, Indiana U., 1971-72; asst. prof. University of Illinois at Chicago, 1972-80; assoc. prof., 1980-2009.
- Publications:
The Archaeology of York, XVII: The Small Finds, 1: Finds from a Roman Sewer System and Adjacent Building in Church Street, ed. P.V. Addyman (London: Council for British Archaeology for York Archaeological Trust, 1976) REVS: YAJ L 1978 193 Swan; Britannia X 1979 383-384 Boon; The Archaeology of York, XVII : The Small Finds, 2: Roman Finds from Skelder Gate and Bishophill, ed. P.V. Addyman (London: London Council for British Archaeology for York Archaeological Trust, 1978) REVS: YAJ LI 1979 169 Ramm; AntJ LIX 1979 448-449 Ramm; BJ CLXXX 1980 772 Hanson; AJ CXXXVIII 1981 282 Millett; “Lucretius 1.657,” AJP 101(1980) 399-400; “Mussato's Commentary on Seneca's Tragedies. New Fragments,” ICS 5 (1980) 149-162; “L'abbazia di Pomposa, centro originario della tradizione e delle tragedie di Seneca,” La Bibliofilia (Firenze Olschki) 85 (1983) 171-185; “Beast-Lore: Catuli and Lioness at Tiberianus 2.14,” AJP 111 (1990) 395-397; “Gellius 17. 8. 7: The Roots of “Africa,” CJ 87 (1991-1992) 9-12; “The Tigress and Her Cubs: Tracking Down a Roman Anecdote,’ Daidalikon: Studies in Memory of Raymond V. Schoder, ed. Robert F. Sutton (Wauconda, IL, 1989) 213-227; “Which Art in Heaven: The Sphere of Manilius,” ICS 29 (2004) 143-157; “Wine, Women, and What?: Some Vices in Seneca's “De ira,” “Veritatis amicitiaeque causa”: Essays in Honor of Anna Lydia Motto and John R. Clark, ed. Nora Byrne Shannon and Edmund Paul Cueva (Wauconda, IL, 1999) 129-145; “Was Manilius Really a Stoic?,” ICS 30 (2005) 41-65; “'Noctes Manilianae': The Terminal Ornament in Book III,” Mouseion (Canada) 5,2 (2005) 115-134; “The MS Tradition of Seneca's tragedies. Ante renatas in Italia litteras, TAPA 102 (1971) 327-356; “Parisinus 8031. Codex Optimus for the A-Mss. of Seneca's Tragedies, Philologus 122 (1978) 88-110; “Dexteritas and humanitas. Gellius XIII,17,1 and Livy XXXVII,7,15,” CP 77 (1982) 42-48; “The Manuscripts of Seneca's Tragedies. A Handlist,” ANRW 1985 II N° 32.2 (1985) 1134-1241; “L'abbazia di Pomposa, centro originario della tradizione e delle tragedie di Seneca,” Libri manoscritti e a stampa da Pomposa all'Umanesimo, ed. L. Balsamo (Firenze: Olschki, 1985) 73-87; Bone, Antler, Ivory, Horn. The Technology of Skeletal Materials since the Roman Period (London: Croom Helm, 1985) REVS: Britannia XVII 1986 465-466 Greep; “History and Bibliography of Classical Scholarship in Czecho-Slovakia: 1900-1987. Part II and index” CB 69 (1993) 3-15.
- Notes:
Alex MacGregor possessed a lifelong love for the written word in all forms, prose, poetry, and calligraphy. By early training at the University of Chicago, he was a paleographer, and his contribution to the study of the MSS of the tragedies of Seneca launched his academic career. Throughout life, he took delight in the hobby of producing, in his own steady hand, facsimiles of pages from some of the most beautiful illuminated MSS. These he bestowed, from time to time, upon friends and colleagues as gifts. He had always dabbled in poetry, and during the last decade or so of his life, he applied his poetic skills to translating the whole of Manilius’ Astronomica into English verse, samples of which he shared with the late George Goold, who accorded them high praise. The translation, in turn, inspired Alex to write a detailed philological commentary on the whole of the Astronomica, a work that he continued to refine and expand after his retirement from UIC in June of 2009. It is to be hoped that this as yet unpublished material will be preserved in an archive, perhaps on the Internet, so that future scholars can profit from his labors. Alex maintained lasting friendships with many of his students, and he was generous to a fault in giving advice and offering comments on work in progress, both that of his colleagues and graduate students. Since his home institution, UIC, had no graduate program in Classics, Alex volunteered his services from time to time to mentor PhD candidates at Loyola University of Chicago, which is in the neighborhood where he lived for most of his life. The dissertations of several Loyola doctoral students (including several UIC graduates in Classics) benefitted greatly from Alex’s careful criticism and advice. On the prose side, Alex was well-known for his pithy essays that possessed elements of the style of Mark Twain and S. J. Perelman. He loved a good debate, and his devotion to philology was a hallmark of his being.
- Sources:
DAS 8:3.329.
- Author: John T. Ramsey
