MAITTAIRE, MICHAEL, an eminent classical editor, of a foreign family, was born in 1668. He was educated at Westminster school, where Dr Busby kept him to the study of Greek and Latin some years longer than usual. He then gained another powerful friend in Dr South, canon of Christ Church, who made him a student of that house, where he took the degree of master of arts early in 1696. From 1695 till 1699, he was second master of Westminster school, which was afterwards indebted to him for Grecce Linguae Dialecti, in usum Scholae Westmonasteriensis, 1706, 8vo, and also for the English Grammar, applied to, and exemplified in, the English Tongue, 1712, 8vo. In 1711, he published Remarks on Whiston's Account of the proceedings of Convocation relative to himself, in a Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, 8vo; and also an Essay against Arianism, and some other Heresies, in reply to Whiston's historical Preface and Appendix to his Primitive Christianity Revived, 8vo. In 1709 he gave the first specimen of his skill in typographical antiquities, by publishing Stephanorum Historia, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens, 8vo. This was followed in 1717 by Historia Typographorum aliquot Parisiensium, vitas et libros complectens, 8vo; and in 1719 appeared Annales Typographici ab artis inventae origine ad annum M.D. 4to. The second volume, divided into two parts, and continued to the year 1536, was published at the Hague in 1702, prefaced by a letter of Toland, under the title of Conjectura verisimilis de prima Typographiae Inventione; the third volume, in two parts, continued to 1557, and (by an appendix) to 1664, issued from the same press in 1725; and in 1733 was published at Amsterdam what was usually considered as the fourth volume, under the title of Annales Typographici ab artis inventae origine, ad annum M.DCLXIV. opera Mich. Maittaire, A.M. editio nova, auctori et emendatori tami primi pars posterior. In 1741 the work was closed at London, by Annalium Typographicorum tomus quintus et ultimus, indicem in tomis quatuor praecedentes complectens, divided, like the two preceding volumes, into two parts. In the intermediate years, Mr Maittaire was diligently employed on various works of importance. In 1713 he published by subscription Opera et Fragmenta Veterum Poëtarum, 1713, in two volumes in folio; but the title of some copies is dated 1721. In 1714, he edited a Greek Testament, in two volumes. The Latin writers, which he published separately, most of them with good indexes, came out in the following order: In 1713, Christus Patiens, Justin, Lucretius, Phaedrus, Sallust, Terence; in 1715, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Cornelius Nepos, Florus, Horace, Juvenal, Ovid in three vols., and Virgil; in 1711, Cæsar's Commentaries, Martial, and Quintus Curtius; in 1718 and 1725, Velleius Paterculus; in 1719, Lucretius; and in 1720, Bonetonii Carmina. In 1721, he published, Batrachomyomachia, Greece, ad veterum exemplarium fidem recusa; glossa Graeca, variantibus lectionibus, versionibus Latinis, commentariis et indicibus, illustrata, 8vo; and in 1722, Miscellanea Græcorum aliquot Scriptorum Carmina, cum versione Latina et notis, in 4to. In 1724 he compiled, at the request of Dr John Freind, an index to the works of Aretæus, intended to accompany the folio edition of that author published in 1723. In 1725 he published an edition of Anacreon in 4to, of which only a hundred copies were printed, and the few errata in each copy corrected by his own hand. In 1726 he published Petri Petiti Medici Parisiensis in tres priores Aretæi Cappadocis Libros Commentarii, nunc primum editi, in 4to. This learned commentary was found amongst the papers of Grævius. From 1728 to 1733 he was employed in publishing Marmorum Arundelianorum, Seldenianorum, aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensis donatorum, una cum Commentariis et Indice, editio secunda, folio, to which an appendix was printed in 1733;
Maixent and Epistola D. Mich. Maittaire ad D. P. des Maizeaux, in qua Indices in Annales Typographicos methodus explicatur, printed in the Present State of the Republic of Letters, for 1733 (p. 142). The life of Robert Stephens in Latin, revised and corrected by the author, with a new and complete list of his works, is prefixed to the improved edition of Stephens's Thesaurus, 4 vols. in folio, which appeared in 1734. In 1736 was published Antiquæ Inscriptiones duæ, folio, being a commentary on two large copper tables discovered near Heraclea, in the bay of Tarentum. In the year 1738 were printed at the Hague, Græcæ Linguae Dialecti in Scholæ Regiæ Westmonasteriensis usum recogniti, opera Mich. Maittaire. In 1739 he addressed to the empress of Russia a small Latin poem, under the title of Carmen Epicium Augustissimæ Russorum Imperatricis sacrum. He was also editor of Plutarch's Apophthegmata, 1641, in 4to. The last publication of Maittaire was a volume of poems in 4to, 1742, under the title of Senilia, sive Poetica aliquot in argumentis varii generis Tentamina. Mr Maittaire died in 1747, aged seventy-nine. His valuable library, which had been fifty years collecting, was sold by auction at the close of the same year and the beginning of the following, taking up in all forty-four nights. Mr Maittaire was patronized by the first Earl of Oxford, both before and after that gentleman's elevation to the peerage, and he continued to be a favourite with his son the second earl; he was also Latin tutor to Mr Stanhope, the Earl of Chesterfield's favourite son.