Sir Richard William Southern (1912–2001), who published under the name R. W. Southern, was a noted 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 to 1961 (where he lectured alongside Christopher Hill), Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1961 to 1969, and President of St John's College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1981. He was awarded the Balzan Prize in 1987 for Medieval History. 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.
Bibliography
- "Ranulf Flambard and Early Anglo-Norman Administration", Alexander Prize Essay (1933)
- The Making of the Middle Ages (1953)
- Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (1962)
- The Life of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, by Eadmer (as editor and translator) (1962, 2nd ed. 1972)
- St Anselm and His Biographer (1963)
- Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (1970)
- Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (1970)
- Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe (1986, 2nd ed. 1992)
- St. Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape (1992)
- Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, Vols. I & II (1997, 2001)
- History and Historians: Selected Papers of R. W. Southern, edited by Robert Bartlett (2004)
External links
- Gifford Lecture biography - By Dr Michael W DeLashmutt
- Palmer, William. "Sir Richard Southern Looks Back: A Portrait of the Medievalist as a Young Man", Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 1998.
- Works by or about R. W. Southern in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
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