Thomas Hartwell Horne

Thomas Hartwell Horne (1780 - 1862), was a theologian, and librarian. He was born in London and educated at Christ's Hospital. He then became a clerk to a barrister, and used his spare time to write. He was initially affiliated with the Wesleyans but later joined the Church of England.

Horne wrote more than forty works in bibliography, Bible commentaries, and Christian apologetics. One of his best known works is the three-volume "Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures" that was published in 1818. This work enjoyed widespread circulation in Britain and North America and went through at least eleven editions during the Nineteenth century. It was reissued in North America in 1970. It was on the strength of that work that Horne was admitted to holy orders without the usual preliminaries, and in 1833 obtained a benefice in London and a prebend in St. Paul's. In 1824 he joined the staff at the British Museum and was senior assistant in the printed books department there from 1824-1860. Over a period of four years he catalogued the Harleian manuscripts held at the Museum.

He wrote an "Introduction to the Study of Bibliography" (1814), and various other works, but he is chiefly remembered in connection with that first mentioned, which was frequently reprinted, and was very widely used as atext-book both at home and in America.

Horne also produced a "Tree Full of Bible Lore," a tree-shaped text of statistics on the Bible, in which he counted the number of books, chapters, verses, words, and even letters. He ended this tree with "It [the Bible] contains knowledge, wisdom, holiness and love." (This "tree" is repoduced in the third series of Ripley's paperbacks, originally published hardbound in 1949.)

Biographical Source

* Clark, R. E. D., "Thomas Hartwell Horne," in "The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church", edited by J. D. Douglas. (Extere: Paternoster Press, 1978). ISBN 0-85364-221-4

Select bibliography

* "A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum", 4 vols. (London: G. Eyre and J. Strahan, 1808-1812).
* "The Campaign of Waterloo" (London: T. Bensley, 1816).
* "Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures", reprint of the 8th edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1970). ISBN 0-8010-4003-5
* "Introduction to the Critical Study of Bibliography", 2 Vols. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1814).
* "Manual of Biblical Bibliography", (Mansfield Center, Connecticut: Martino Publishers, 2005). ISBN 1578985625
* "An Essay on the History of Liturgies", (London: W. Clowes, 1831).
* "The Complete Grazier", (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1833).