Bio-bibliography

UK

Richard Southern

1987 Balzan Prize for Medieval History

A medieval historian of great expertise and wide influence, he has illuminated the religious and intellectual history of the Middle Ages in Europe by his vivid reanimation of the thought and motives of influential individuals and their relation to the political and social context in which they worked.

Richard William Southern was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on February 8, 1912 (†2001); he is a British citizen;

fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and Tutor in Medieval History (1937-61); Chichele Professor of Modem History, and fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (1961-69), President of St. John’s College, Oxford (1969-8 1);

prizes: Alexander Prize of the Royal Historical Society (1933), Royal Society of Literature Prize for “Medieval Humanism and other Studies” (1970);

honorary doctorates of the universities of Glasgow (1964), of Durham (1969), of Cambridge (1971), of Bristol (1974), of Harvard (1977), of Warwick (1978), of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1979), of Columbia (1982);

fellow of the British Academy since 1962; president of the Royal Historical Society (1968- 72), corresponding fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (1965), foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1972); member of the directorate of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1982); knighted (1974) for services to medieval history.

His works include numerous papers, lectures and conferences. Some of his most important books are:

— The Making of the Middie Ages, Hutchinson, Londra 1953;

— Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages, Harvard University Press, 1962;

— The Life of St. Anselm by Eadmer ( = Eadmeri Vita Anselmi), edito con introduzione, note e traduzione di R.W. Southern, Nelson Medieval Texts, Londra-Edimburgo 1962;

— St. Anselm and his Biographer: a study of monastic life and thought, c. 1059- c 1130, The Birbeck Lectures, Trinity College, Cambridge 1959, Cambridge University Press 1963;

— Memorials of St. Anselm, edito con F.S. Schmidt, O.S.B., Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, i. Oxford 1969;

— Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages, Pelican History o/ the Church, ii. Harmondsworth 1970;

— Medieval Humanism and other Studies, Blackwell, Oxford 1970;

— Robert Grosseteste: the Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe, Oxford 1986.