Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Monro, David Binning
MONRO, DAVID BINNING (1836–1905), classical scholar, born at Edinburgh on 16 Nov. 1836, was eldest child of the four sons and two daughters of Alexander Monro Binning, writer to the signet (1805- 1891), of Auchinbowie, Stirlingshire, and Softlow, Roxburghshire, by his wife and cousin Harriet, daughter of Alexander Monro, M.D. [q. v.], of Craiglockhart. On his marriage his father assumed his wife's surname, which his own ancestors had borne, and on his death in 1891 his Scottish estates passed to his eldest son. Monro was as a boy educated privately. He entered Glasgow University in 1851, and there distinguished himself in logic and mathematics, but the influence of Edmund Lushington [q. v. Suppl. I], professor of Greek, determined the direction of his studies for life. He matriculated at Oxford as scholar of Brasenose College on 16 June 1854, and in November of the same year was elected to a scholarship at Balliol College, where he afterwards held a Snell exhibition. He was placed in the first class in moderations, both in classics and mathematics, in 1856, in the first class in the final classical school, and the second class in the final mathematical schools in 1858. He won the Ireland scholarship (1858) and the prize for a Latin essay (1859), and was elected fellow of Oriel in the same year. He entered at Lincoln's Inn as a student, but was not called to the bar, returning to Oxford in 1862 as lecturer of Oriel College. He became tutor in 1863, and was elected vice-provost in 1874, on the retirement of Dr. Edward Hawkins [q. v.] from Oxford. On Hawkins's death in 1882 Monro was chosen provost.
As tutor at Oriel, Monro raised the standard of the teaching, and won the enthusiastic regard of his pupils by his devotion to their best interests. He lectured, as the manner then was, on a great variety of subjects, comparative philology, early Greek history and philosophy, Homer, Thucydides, Herodotus, early Roman history, Roman constitutional history, and Roman public law, and though his delivery was weak and he lacked fluency, his lectures were valued. Here, as with his pupils in his rooms, his strength lay not merely in the abundance and accuracy of his knowledge, but even more in his method of interpreting an author and of marshalling his facts. As provost he ruled his college in a wise and liberal spirit; a sound judgment and a rare grasp of principle were linked to fine courtesy and warmth of heart. In the life and work of the university he played a leading part. He was more than once public examiner; he served on the delegacy of the press, was a curator of the museum, and a member of the hebdomadal council, and he filled the office of vice-chancellor {1901-4).
Meanwhile Monro devoted his literary interests and energies to the elucidation of the 'Homeric Poems,' and to questions arising out of them. In October 1868 he wrote in the 'Quarterly Review' an article on the 'Homeric Question,' which he recast for the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (edit. 1880). He collated the 'Venetian MSS. of Scholia' to the 'Iliad' for Dindorf's edition (1875-7); published a school edition of 'Iliad I' (1878), a 'Grammar of the Homeric Language' (1882; 2nd edit. 1891), and a school edition of the 'Iliad' (i.-xii. 1884, 3rd edit. 1899; xiii.-xxiv. 1889, 3rd edit. 1901). A complete text of 'Homeri Opera et Reliquiæ' appeared in 1896, and in 1902 there followed, in collaboration with T. W. Allen, a text of the 'Iliad' with an apparatus criticus. The later years of his life were given to an edition of the last twelve books of the 'Odyssey' (1901), with notes and introductions embodying the results of his work. He contributed papers on Homeric questions to the 'Academy,' the 'Journal of Philology,' the 'Journal of Hellenic Studies,' and other periodicals. If the quantity of his published work is small, this is due to his powers of compression, to his self-criticism, and his reluctance to put out anything for which he could not vouch. His school edition of 'Iliad I,' which served the purpose of a 'ballon d'essai,' embodied the results of years of work, and gives concisely the writer's views on disputed points of interpretation and the principles underlying them, whilst the publication of the 'Homeric Grammar' put Monro at once among the first authorities on the subject.
Monro held that the solution of all Homeric questions must be found in philology. He was thoroughly familiar with the work of archaeologists and the contribution made by them to our knowledge, but he did not hold it to be of equal value or certainty. Unwearying industry, a sound judgment, and a true sense of literary form combined to make him a model interpreter of his author; his dislike of anything premature or superfluous, his wide range of knowledge of comparative philology, and his clearness of statement gained for his writings exceptional authority. Monro spoke French, German, and Italian with accuracy of idiom and accent, having a very sensitive ear, whilst his 'Modes of Greek Music' (1894) attests his fondness for music and his knowledge of it. Monro founded the Oxford Philological Society in 1870, and was for many years its president; he took part in founding the Hellenic Society and the Classical Association, and was vice-president of both; he was a member of the council of the British School at Athens, officier de l'instruction publique in France, and an original fellow of the British Academy. He was created hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1904, LL.D. of Glasgow in 1883, and Doc. Litt. of Dublin in 1892. He died suddenly of heart disease at Heiden, Switzerland, on 22 Aug. 1905, and was buried in Holywell cemetery, Oxford. His portrait by Sir William Quiller Orchardson, R.A., is in the Oriel common room. He was unmarried.
[Personal knowledge; David Binning Monro, a short Memoir, translated with slight alterations from a notice by J. Cook Wilson in the Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Klassischen Alterthumswissenschaft, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907.]