Thomas Okey Explained

Thomas Okey (30 September 1852 – 4 May 1935) was a British expert on basket weaving, a translator of Italian, and a writer on art and the topography of architecture and art works in Italy and France. Okey's first experience of the Italian language came when he attended the Extension Lectures at Toynbee Hall in the 1880s.^{[1] [2]}

In 1919, he became the first Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Cambridge.^[3] Okey was a hereditary basket maker from a poor East End of London family, and on his appointment at Cambridge he stated that:

and ^[4]

He was made a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1920.^[2] Okey was also a member of the Art Workers' Guild, and was elected Master in 1914.^[5]

Works

• Venice and its Story (1904)^[6]
• Paris and its Story (1904)
• Dante's Purgatorio (translator).^[7]
• The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi^[8]
• The Story of Avignon (1926)
• The Little Flowers of St. Francis
• Selections From the Vita Nuova
• The Old Venetian Places and Old Venetian Folk
• A Basketful of Memories: An Autobiographical Sketch (1930)

Notes and References

1. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin, 1910.
2. Okey, Thomas. 978-0-19-861412-8. 10.1093/ref:odnb/54191. 2004.
3. Web site: Robert Hollander: Charles Singleton's Hidden Debts to Thomas Okey and John Sinclair. 2016-04-11. www.princeton.edu.
4. Book: A History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 4, 1870-1990. Christopher Brooke, Christopher N. L. Brooke, Damian Riehl Leader, Victor Morgan, Peter Searby. 1988. 251. Cambridge University Press . 9780521343503.
5. Web site: Thomas Okey. Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. 22 October 2021.
6. Book: Okey, Thomas. Venice and Its Story. 1904-01-01. J. M. Dent & Company. en.
7. Dante Alighieri, 1., Okey, T., Oelsner, H., Wicksteed, P. H. (Philip Henry). (1912). T he Purgatorio of Dante Alighieri. London: J.M. Dent & sons ltd.
8. Book: Okey, Thomas. The Little Flowers of Saint Francis. 2003-09-19. Courier Corporation. 9780486431864. en.