Richard Southern

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Sir Richard William Southern (1912-2001) was a notable English medieval historian, based at the University of Oxford.

Southern was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and at Balliol College, Oxford where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in History. At Oxford Southern's mentors were Sir Maurice Powicke and Vivian Hunter Galbraith. He was a Fellow of Balliol from 1937-61 (where he lectured alongside Christopher Hill), Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1961-9, and President of St John's College, Oxford, from 1969-81. He was knighted in 1974. He died in Oxford.

Southern's Making of the Middle Ages (1953) established his reputation as a medievalist. This pioneering work opened up new vistas in medieval history and it has been translated into many languages. Southern's studies of St Anselm and Robert Grosseteste have redefined their historiography.

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Making of the Middle Ages (1953)
  • Medieval Humanism: And Other Studies (1970)
  • St Anselm and his Biographer (1963)
  • Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe (1986, 2nd ed. 1992)
  • St. Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape (1992)
  • Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (1970)
  • Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (1962)
  • Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe (1997)
  • History and Historians: Selected Papers of R.W. Southern, edited by Robert Bartlett (2004)

[edit] External links