Henry John Roby (1830 1915) was a Cambridge-educated classicist whose influential career included periods as a schoolmaster, professor of Roman law, businessman, educational reformer and Member of Parliament. His two-volume Grammar of the Latin Language, first published in the 1870s, reveals his innovative, descriptive approach to grammar, which situates thorough analysis of the Latin language within the historical context of the writings themselves, or, as Roby puts it, setting 'example above precept' in order to put grammar 'in the proper light, as an account of what men do say, not a theory of what they should say'. The book provides numerous examples from classical Latin writings dating from circa 200 BCE. to 120 CE to illustrate points in phonology, morphology and syntax. A work of remarkable breadth and depth, Roby's book remains an essential resource for both historical linguistics and the study of Latin grammar."
