Edmund Garratt Gardner
Encyclopedia
Edmund Garratt Gardner FBA
FBA
FBA may refer to:*Fellow of the British Academy*Federation of British Artists*Federal Bar Association*First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia*Flux Balance Analysis, in chemical engineering/systems biology*Freshwater Biological Association...

 (12 May 1869 - 27 July 1935) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 scholar and writer, specializing in Italian history and literature
Italian literature
Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he was regarded as one of the foremost British Dante
DANTE
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 scholars.

Career

Gardner was born in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

, the eldest of the six children of John Gardner, a member of the stock exchange, and his wife Amy Vernon Garratt. He attended Beaumont College
Beaumont College
Beaumont College was a Jesuit public school in Old Windsor, Berkshire, England. In 1967 the school closed. The property became a conference centre, and from 2008 an hotel.-History of the estate:...

 in Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....

 before starting a science degree at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. He transferred to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...

 in 1887, with the intention of reading medicine. His studies were interrupted in 1890 due to health problems that were to persist throughout his life; during his convalescence in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, he received his only formal training in Italian from a Florentine bookseller. He eventually graduated with a BA, having being granted an aegrotat
Aegrotat
Aegrotat ,pronounced eegrohtat, is a medical certificate of illness excusing student's sickness. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, in the context of degrees and courses considered as passed by a student too ill to finish the appropriate material...

 in Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos.

Gardner decided to engage in literary studies instead of following a medical career. In 1893 he was teaching English literature at the Cambridge Extension School and had his first article on Dante
DANTE
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 published in Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

. He proceeded to contribute to a series of popular travel guides on cities in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 published by J.M. Dent, while producing a steady scholarly output on Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...

, Ariosto and their period. His interest in Roman Catholic mysticism resulted in books on Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Bernard
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...

 and Dante and the mystics, in which he argued that Dante was "a scholastic in theology but a mystic in religion".

His academic contributions were recognized with his appointment as Barlow lecturer on Dante at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

 between 1910 and 1926. He was promoted to reader in 1918. The following year he became the first holder of the Serena Professorship in Italian Studies at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

. In 1922 he won the Serena Medal 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...

, established in 1920. From 1923 to 1925 he was Professor of Early Italian Language and Literature at the University of London, becoming Professor of Italian there from 1925 until his retirement in 1934. In 1925 he became a member of the British Academy. A fund was set up in early 1935 to mark his retirement, its main purpose being to finance the Edmund G. Gardner Memorial Prize in Italian Studies, to be awarded every five years by a committee from University College London.

He was appointed an officer of Order of the Crown of Italy
Order of the Crown of Italy
The Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861...

 in 1921, a commendatore in 1929, and a grand officer in 1935

Gardner died in 1935 as a result of complications during an operation at Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Selected publications

  • Gardner, Edmund Garratt. The story of Florence (1910). London : J.M.Dent. 218 pages.
  • Gardner, Edmund Garratt. "Dante's Ten Heavens" (1898). London : A. Constable. 310 pages.

External links

  • Biography at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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