Paul Maas

Paul Maas (18 November 1880, in Frankfurt am Main – 15 July 1964, in Oxford) was a German scholar who, along with Karl Lachmann, founded the field of textual criticism.

He studied classical philology at the universities of Berlin and Munich, receiving his doctorate in 1903. In 1910 he obtained his habilitation and in 1920 became a full professor at Berlin. In 1930 he was appointed chair of classical philology at the University of Königsberg. In 1934 he was forced into retirement by the Nazi government, and in 1939 he emigrated to Great Britain, where he taught classes at Oxford University. After his death, he was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery's Jewish section in Oxford.

Maas's law

Maas formulated Maas's law, an observation of the layout of bookrolls.

Works by Maas published in English

• Textual criticism (1958), translation of Textkritik, 1927.
• Greek metre (1962), translation of Griechische metrik, 1923.

Literature

• Katja Bär: Paul Maas. In: Robert B. Todd (Hrsg.): Dictionary of British Classicists Vol. 2. Bristol 2004.
• Charles Oscar Brink: Paul Maas (1880–1964). In: Eikasmós 4, 1993, S. 253–254. (Abstract)
• Richard Kannicht: Griechische Metrik. In: Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (Hrsg.): Einleitung in die griechische Philologie. B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart/Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-519-07435-4, S. 343–362.
• Hugh Lloyd-Jones: Paul Maas †. In: Gnomon 37, 1965, S. 219–221.
• Hugh Lloyd-Jones: Paul Maas (1880–1964). In: Eikasmós 4, 1993, S. 255–262. (Abstract)
• Eckart Mensching: Über einen verfolgten deutschen Altphilologen: Paul Maas 1880–1964. Berlin 1987.
• Peter Wirth (1987), "Maas, Paul", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 15, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 597–597; (full text online)