Anthony Grafton
Encyclopedia
Anthony Grafton (born 21 May 1950) is a historian
and the current Henry Putnam University Professor at Princeton University
. He is also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy
and a recipient of the Balzan Prize
. As of January 2011, he serves as the President of the American Historical Association
.
and the University of Chicago
, where he took his A.B. and Ph.D. in rapid succession. He studied for one year at the University College, London under the celebrated ancient historian Arnaldo Momigliano
, and retains links with the Warburg Institute
, University of London
.
's Department of History
, he was appointed to a position at Princeton University
in 1975, where he has subsequently remained. Since January 2007, he has been a co-editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas
.
to the eighteenth century, and in the history of historical scholarship
. His many books include a profound study of the scholarship and chronology of the foremost classical scholar of the late Renaissance, Joseph Scaliger (2 vols, 1983–1993), a revisionist
account (with Lisa Jardine
) of the significance of Renaissance education (From Humanism to the Humanities, 1986), and, more recently, studies of Girolamo Cardano as an astrologer (1999) and Leon Battista Alberti (2000).
The best introduction to his preoccupation with the relations between scholarship and science in the early modern period
is perhaps Defenders of the Text (1991). In some ways his most original and accessible book is The Footnote: A curious history (1997; published in German as Die Tragischen Ursprünge der deutschen Fußnote), a case-study in what might be called the history of history, from below.
He also writes on a wide variety of topics for The New Republic
, The American Scholar
and The New York Review of Books
. He owns a bookwheel
which he keeps at hand in his home.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and the current Henry Putnam University Professor at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He is also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
and a recipient of the Balzan Prize
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
. As of January 2011, he serves as the President of the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
.
Education
Grafton was educated at Phillips AcademyPhillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he took his A.B. and Ph.D. in rapid succession. He studied for one year at the University College, London under the celebrated ancient historian Arnaldo Momigliano
Arnaldo Momigliano
Arnaldo Dante Momigliano KBE was an Italian historian known for his work in historiography, characterized by Donald Kagan as the "world’s leading student of the writing of history in the ancient world." He became Professor of Roman history at the University of Turin in 1936, but as a Jew soon lost...
, and retains links with the Warburg Institute
Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of the influence of classical antiquity on all aspects of European civilisation.-History:The Institute was founded by...
, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
.
Career
After a brief period teaching at CornellCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
's Department of History
Cornell University Department of History
|- valign="top" ! style="border-top: solid 1px #aaaaaa;" | College | style="border-top: solid 1px #aaaaaa;" | Arts and Sciences |- valign="top" ! style="border-top: solid 1px #aaaaaa;" | Department Chair | style="border-top: solid 1px #aaaaaa;" | Barry Strauss...
, he was appointed to a position at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1975, where he has subsequently remained. Since January 2007, he has been a co-editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas
Journal of the History of Ideas
The Journal of the History of Ideas is a peer-reviewed academic journal which publishes research in intellectual history. The journal "defines intellectual history expansively and ecumenically," and includes the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and social sciences,...
.
Work
Anthony Grafton is noted for his studies of the classical tradition from the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
to the eighteenth century, and in the history of historical scholarship
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
. His many books include a profound study of the scholarship and chronology of the foremost classical scholar of the late Renaissance, Joseph Scaliger (2 vols, 1983–1993), a revisionist
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
account (with Lisa Jardine
Lisa Jardine
Lisa Anne Jardine CBE , née Lisa Anne Bronowski, is a British historian of the early modern period. She is professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London, and is Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority...
) of the significance of Renaissance education (From Humanism to the Humanities, 1986), and, more recently, studies of Girolamo Cardano as an astrologer (1999) and Leon Battista Alberti (2000).
The best introduction to his preoccupation with the relations between scholarship and science in the early modern period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
is perhaps Defenders of the Text (1991). In some ways his most original and accessible book is The Footnote: A curious history (1997; published in German as Die Tragischen Ursprünge der deutschen Fußnote), a case-study in what might be called the history of history, from below.
He also writes on a wide variety of topics for The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The American Scholar
The American Scholar
The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new way for America's fledgling society to...
and The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
. He owns a bookwheel
Bookwheel
The bookwheel, an alternative version of the revolving bookstand, is a device designed to allow one person to read a variety of heavy books in one location with ease. The books are rotated vertically much like a Ferris wheel . This device was invented by Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli...
which he keeps at hand in his home.
Honours
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize, History, 1993
- Balzan PrizeBalzan PrizeThe International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
for History of the Humanities (2002) - In 2006, Grafton received a rare honorary degree of Leiden UniversityLeiden UniversityLeiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
. - The Sigmund H. Danziger, Jr. Memorial Lecture in the HumanitiesThe Sigmund H. Danziger, Jr. Memorial Lecture in the HumanitiesThe Sigmund H. Danziger, Jr. Memorial Lecture in the Humanities is an annual honorary bestowed upon an “established scholar of classical literature, who has made substantial contributions to the critical analysis of classical literature, or has been exceptionally skilled at inspiring an...
, University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, 2011
Books
- Joseph Scaliger: A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship, Oxford-Warburg Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983–1993).
- with Lisa Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities. Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Europe (London: Duckworth, 1986).
- Forgers and Critics. Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
- Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in the Age of Science, 1450-1800 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
- Commerce with the Classics: Ancient Books and Renaissance Readers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997).
- The Footnote: A Curious History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
- Cardano's Cosmos : The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999).
- Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).
- Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).
- What Was History?: The Art of History in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- with Megan Hale Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
- Codex in Crisis (New York: The Crumpled Press, 2008). Video: Anthony Grafton: Codex in Crisis, Authors@Google, February 12, 2009
- with Brian A. Curran, Pamela O. Long, and Benjamin Weiss, Obelisk: A History (Cambridge, MA: Burndy Library and MIT Press, 2009).
- Worlds Made by Words (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009). Review by Véronique Krings, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.09.32
- (with Joanna Weinberg)"I Have Always Loved the Holy Tongue": Isaac Casaubon, The Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011)
Essays
- Anthony Grafton at The New York Review of Books