Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>From his own lifetime onward, Richard Bentley has remained a figure of contention and controversy: a hero to fellow-sceptics, to conservatives the epitome of the overconfident emender whose energies are more often directed at correcting the author than the scribe—a characterization that Bentley himself abetted by his disastrous edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost. While it is true that Bentley’s conjectures are often hampered by his excessive concern for logical correctness, at their best they are unsurpassed for acuity and penetration. This chapter surveys Bentley’s major achievements, giving due attention to his editions of Horace, Terence, and Manilius while also noting his contributions to Greek studies, from his early work on the text of Callimachus and the Greek lexicographers to his unfinished plan for a critical edition of the New Testament, in which he was more than a century ahead of his time.</jats:p>