John Nott
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John Nott (1751-1825) was a physician and classical scholar. In 1795 he was the first to translate the complete surviving collection of Catullus' poems. George Lamb's bowdlerized Catullus was published in 1821.
Nott refused to omit explicit sexual references in Catullus's poetry, explaining that ( ) "when an ancient classic is translated, and explained, the work may be considered as transforming a link in the chain of history: history should not be falsified, we ought therefore to translate him fairly; and when he gives us the manners of his own day, however disgusting to our sensations, and repugnant to our natures they may sometimes prove, we must not endeavour to conceal, or gloss them over." (Cit. Venuti 1994, 85)
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