Stephen Gaselee (diplomat)

Stephen Gaselee was a British diplomat, writer and librarian. He died in 1943.

Gaselee's recreations, according to the anonymous obituary in "The Times", were "travel, shooting and bridge", but he was a man of wide interests for whom work and recreation blended imperceptibly. He wrote on "classical literature, medieval and modern Latin ... Coptic, hagiography and liturgiology, palaeography and bibliography, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, wine and food".

He was a friend of the classicist A. F. Scholfield, who was Librarian of Cambridge University Library from 1923 to 1949. Gaselee, meanwhile, was Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and afterwards Librarian and Keeper of the Papers at the Foreign Office.

He was a frequent and generous donor of books to Cambridge University Library. One unusual item was acquired at Sinaia in 1926: a copy, signed to Gaselee, of Queen Marie of Romania's novel "Why? A story of great longing". His major donations were a collection of 311 incunabula, given in 1934; 279 early 16th century books, given in 1940; and fifty books to be chosen by the Librarian at his death. His personal collection of works relating to Petronius and the "Satyricon" was bought from his heirs and given to Cambridge University Library by a group of benefactors.

He has three surviving daughters.

Works by Stephen Gaselee

* 1910: Petronius, "Satyricon" in Latin and English. Edited by Gaselee, with 100 illustrations by Norman Lindsay
* 1917: Achilles Tatius, "Leucippe and Clitophon" edited with English translation by Gaselee (Loeb Classical Library)
* 1925: "Joyfull newes out of the newe founde worlde" (cover title: "Frampton's Monardes") edited by Gaselee, combining material from Frampton's 1577 and 1580 editions
* "The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse", edited by Gaselee

Bibliography

*Andrew Dalby, "Gaseleiana" in "Libraries Information Bulletin" (Cambridge) no. 81 (1979) pp. 2-4.