• Date of Birth: August 18, 1881
  • Born City: Chicago
  • Born State/Country: IL
  • Parents: Louis & Eleanora Fried U.
  • Date of Death: June 21, 1965
  • Death City: Rome
  • Death State/Country: Italy
  • Married: Mary Louise Bates, 1 Sept. 1909.
  • Education:

    A.B. U. Chicago, 1903; Ph.D., 1908; study at Munich, summer 1906; ASCSR, 1906-8; Litt. D. U. Padua (Italy), 1962; U. North Carolina, 1964.

  • Dissertation:

    "The Identification of the Manuscripts of Catullus cited in Statius' Edition of 1566" (Chicago, 1909); printed (Chicago, 1908).

  • Professional Experience:

    Res. asst. Lat. U. Chicago, 1906-8; asst. Lat., 1908-9; prof. Lat. & head dept. Lat. U. Pittsburgh, 1909-19; head dept. Lat. & Gk. State U. Iowa, 1919-25; prof. Lat. U. Chicago, 1925-44; Kenan prof. Lat. & head dept. class. U.< North Carolina, 1944-59; chair, div. hum., 1945-50; ann. prof. AAR, 1925-6; asso. ed. CW, 1913-9; CJ, 1920-7; PQ, 1922-5; CP, 1926-44; SPhil, 1944-59; ed. Macmillan Classical Series, 1929-44; pres. CAMWS, 1923-4; APA, 1934-5; ACL, 1937-47; council AAUP, 1925-7; adviser to dir. Selective Service, 1948-53; Goodwin Award, 1958; pres. fellows, Med. Acad. Am., 1957-60; pres. 1960-3; fell. AAAS, 1948; comm. on prizes, International Balzan Found., 1961.

  • Publications:

    "The Book Division of Propertius," CP 4 (1909) 45-51; "The Manuscripts of Propertius," CP 6 (1911) 282-301; "Horace and Tibullus," AJP 33 (1912) 149-67; "Saturn and Satire," CP 8 (1913) 172-94; "Some Type Names in the Odes of Horace," CQ 9 (1915) 27-30; Elementary Latin, with Norman E. Henry (New York, 1923; rev. 1929, 1936); Second Latin Book, with Norman E. Henry (New York, 1925; rev. 1929, 1936); "The Origin and Development of the Alphabet," AJA 31 (1927) 311-28; "The Added Letters of the Greek Alphabet," CP 32 (1927) 136-41; "The Etruscan Origin of the Roman Alphabet and the Names of the Letters," ibid., 372-7; Sicconis Polentonis Scriptorum Illustrium Latinae Linguae Libri XVIII (Rome, 1928); Third Latin Book, with Norman E. Henry & D. S. White (New York, 1930); Ancient Writing and Its Influence (New York, 1932); "Classical Authors in Certain Mediaeval Florilegia," CP 27 (1932) 1-42; "Early Greek Alphabets, with Especial reference to Phrygian," Studies Capps, 333-42; "Virgil in Certain Mediaeval Florilegia," Studi Medievali 5 (1937) 59-66; "A Biography of A.B.C.," CO 14 (1936-7) 21-2; "Latin as a Social Subject," CO 15 (1937-8) 57-8; Latin for Americans, First Book, with Norman E. Henry (New York, 1941; rev., 1950, 1956; rev. with Charles Henderson, Jr. & Norman E. Henry, 1962); Latin for Americans, Second Book, with Norman E. Henry (New York, 1941; rev. 1950, 1956; rev. with Charles Henderson, Jr. & Norman E. Henry, 1962); "Apophoreta in Petronius and Martial," CP 36 (1941) 346-55; "The Latin Element in Basic English," CO 21 (1943-4) 33-4; "Sat Verborum Sapientia Est," CO 22 (1944-5) 66-7; "Aims and Methods of Latin Teaching," CB 24 (1947) 13; Colucii Salutati De Laboribus Herculis 2 vols. (Zurich, 1951); Studies in the Italian Renaissance (Rome, 1955); Colucii Salutati De Seculo et Religione (Florence, 1956); The Origin and Development of Humanistic Script (Rome, 1960); "What is the Message of the Classics for Our Modern Life?" CO 39 (1961-2) 30-1; The Humanism of Coluccio Salutati (Padua, 1963); "Miscellaneous Comments on Juvenal," Studies Caplan, 274-84.Bibliography: Studies Ullman, xv-xxiv. ^ Festschriften: Studies in Honor of Berthold Louis Ullman, ed. Lillian B. Lawler, Dorothy M. Robathan, William C. Korfmacher (St. touis, 1960);Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Honor of Berthold Louis Ullman, ed. C. Henderson, Jr., 2 vols. (Rome, 1964).

  • Notes:

    Berthold L. Ullman was one of the leading classical scholars in the world when he died at the age of 82 in one of his favorite locations, the Vatican Library. Ullman was writing a book about Renaissance humanism at the time of his passing and had become well known earlier for many articles on ancient writing, pedagogy, humanism, and so on. He was preeminent as a teacher of teachers and was highly respected and effective in his quiet but firm manner.Ullman was well known as a collaborator with Norman Henry, principally as an author of the Latin for Americans series of high-school texts, commonly used in the United States for decades after 1930. His greatest honor may have been to serve the Balzan Foundation, an organization which aimed to rival the Nobel Foundation, awarding prizes for peace, literature, and science. Ullman was as comfortable in working with young and inexperienced students as he was in conversing and debating with the learned scholars in his field. His bibliography lists nearly 200 publications, many scholarly and many more of practical application to those involved in classical pedagogy.

  • Sources:

    Almonte Charles Howell, The Kenan Professorships (Chapel Hill, 1956), 309-11; Lillian B. Lawler, CW59 (1965-6) 189-90; NYTimes (27 June 1965) 64; D. Robathan, CJ 61 (1965-6) 95; Speculum 41 (July 1966) 599-600; WhAm 4:960.

  • Author: R. L. Den Adel