HEATH, BENJAMIN (1704-1766), English classical scholar and bibliophile, was born at Exeter on April 20, and died on Sept. 13, 1766. He was the son of a wealthy merchant, and was thus able to devote himself mainly to travel and book collecting. As a classical scholar he made his reputation by his critical and metrical notes on the Greek tragedians. He also left ms. notes on Burmann's and Martyn's editions of Virgil, on Euripides, Catullus, Tibullus and the greater part of Hesiod. His Revisal of Shakespear's Text (1765) was an answer to the "insolent dogmatism" of Bishop Warburton. Two of his sons were Benjamin, headmaster of Harrow, and George, headmaster of Eton. His collection of rare classical works formed the nucleus of his son Benjamin's famous library (Bibliotheca Heathiana).
An account of the Heath family will be found in Sir W. R. Drake's Heathiana (1882) .