James Duport (/duːˈpɔːrt/; 1606, Cambridge – 17 July 1679, Peterborough), in Latin books Jacobus Duportus Anglus,[1] was an English classical scholar.
His father, John Duport, who was descended from an old Norman family (the Du Ports of Caen, who settled in Leicestershire during the reign of Henry IV), was master of Jesus College, Cambridge.
He is best known by his Homeri gnomologia (1660), a collection of all the aphorisms, maxims, and remarkable opinions in the Iliad and Odyssey, illustrated by quotations from the Bible and classical literature.
His other published works chiefly consist of translations (from the Bible and Prayer Book into Greek) and short original poems, collected under the title of Horae subsecivae or Stromata.
The character of Duports' work is not such as to appeal to modern scholars, but he deserves the credit of having done much to keep alive the study of classical literature in his day.