J. B. Trapp

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Joseph Burney Trapp (July 16th 1925 - July 14th 2005) was an historian, scholar and former director of the Warburg Institute.

Trapp was born in New Zealand, and was educated at Victoria University College in Wellington. He worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library from 1946 to 1950, and taught at Victoria University College from 1950 to 1951.

In 1951 he began lecturing in Medieval Literature at Reading University, before moving to the Warburg Institute in 1953 as an assistant librarian. In 1966 he became its Librarian, and in 1976 its Director - a post he held until his retirement in 1990.

His work on John Colet and other English humanists, and his study of Petrarch, were published in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes over many years.

He married his wife Elayne in 1953, with whom he had two sons.