Mary Brown Pharr Explained

Mary Brown Pharr was an American classicist, best known for her work with her husband Clyde Pharr on the translation of the Codex Theodosianus.^[1]

Early life and education

Born in Lebanon, Tennessee, Mary Brown received her secondary school education at the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.^[2] She taught the classics in public schools and was assistant professor of classics at Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, South Carolina.^[3] Brown earned an M.A. in classics at Vanderbilt University in 1944, with a thesis titled A Study in Roman Criminal Law—a translation of Book IX of the Theodosian Code.^[4]

Career

Brown married her advisor, Clyde Pharr, on December 19, 1945, and became his research assistant.^[5] By April, 1946, Mary was the assistant editor of the Theodosian Code translation project,^[6] which was to be the first volume in a series translating the whole body of Roman law^[7] In addition to working on the Theodosian Code translation, Mary Brown Pharr published two articles of her own: "Crimes of Soldiers in the Theodosian Code," and "The Kiss in Roman Law."^[8]

Mary accompanied Clyde Pharr to the University of Texas, Austin in 1950 when he accepted the position of visiting professor of Classics there.^[9] They both continued to work on the Theodosian Code translation, which finally was published by the Princeton University Press in 1952.^[10] Thereafter they shifted their attention to the Justinian Code translation, which was to be the next volume of the Corpus Juris Romani. However, when Mary died on December 24, 1972, and Clyde Pharr passed away one week after,^[11] that project remained uncompleted.^[12]

Notes and References

1. See Linda Jones Hall, "Clyde Pharr, the Women of Vanderbilt, and the Wyoming Judge: The Story Behind the Translation of the Theodosian Code in Mid-Century America," 8 Roman Legal Tradition 1 (2012).
2. Mary Brown Pharr, "The Kiss in Roman Law," 42 Classical Journal, no. 7, April 1947, p. 393.
3. Id.
4. Hall, note 1 above, p.20. Hall favorably notes her "smooth flowing translation style." Id.
5. Id. See also "Marriage of Brown/Pharr," The Tennessian, Nov.11, 1945, p.29.
6. Hall, n. 1 above at p.27,
7. Id at p.15. The series was to be known as the Corpus Juris Romani. See Timothy Kearley, Roman Law, Classical Education, and Limits on Classical Participation in America into the Twentieth-Century, (2022) pp. 196-204.
8. See Mary Brown Pharr, "The Kiss in Roman Law," note 2 above, and Mary Brown Pharr, "Crimes of Soldiers in the Theodosian Code," 24 The Classical Outlook, no. 7, April 1947, pp.69-70.
9. Hall, note 1 above, p.35.
10. Id., pp.1, 27. The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitions, Clyde Pharr trans. & ed. (1952).
11. Id., pp.39-40
12. See Kearley, note 7 above pp.196-204.