Thomas Morell

Thomas Morell (18 March 1703 – 19 February 1784) was an English librettist, classical scholar,[1] and printer.[2]

Thomas Morell, 1763 engraving by James Basire after William Hogarth.

Life

He was born in Eton, Buckinghamshire and educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.(BA, 1726, MA, 1730 and DD, 1743).

He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and in 1768 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as a "Rector of Buckland in Hertfordshire, Author of the Greek Thesaurus lately published, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a Gentleman well skilled in Natural History and every branch of Polite Literature". [3]

He was appointed Garrison Chaplain at Portsmouth barracks in 1775.

Morell is important for having written the longest and most detailed surviving account of collaboration with Handel.[4]

He died in 1784 and was buried in Chiswick, London.

Librettos

He is best known as the librettist of the following of George Frideric Handel's oratorios:

References

  1. www.oxforddnb.com
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 www.jstor.org
  3. "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  4. The Manuscripts of J. Eliot Hodgkin, F.S.A., of Richmond, Surrey, Historical Manuscripts Commission 15th Report, Appendix, pt ii (London, 1897), 91-93