Taylorian Lecture
Encyclopedia
The Taylorian Lecture, sometimes referred to as the "Special Taylorian Lecture" or "Taylorian Special Lecture", is a prestigious annual lecture on Modern European Literature, delivered at the Taylor Institution
in the University of Oxford
since 1889.
and Joseph Wright
. This second series of lectures began in 1920. In 1930 a further volume of lectures was published, from the years 1920-1930, under the title Studies in European Literature, being the Taylorian Lectures Second Series, 1920—1930:
Taylor Institution
The Taylor Institution comprises the buildings in Oxford which harbour the libraries dedicated to the study of the European Languages at Oxford University. It also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford...
in the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
since 1889.
1889-1899
The first eleven lectures were published collectively in 1900, under the title Studies in European Literature, being the Taylorian Lectures 1889—1899:- 1889: Edward DowdenEdward DowdenEdward Dowden , was an Irish critic and poet.He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinburgh in 1886. Edward's literary tastes emerged early, in a series of essays written at the age of twelve...
, “Literary Criticism in France” - 1890: Walter PaterWalter PaterWalter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, critic of art and literature, and writer of fiction.-Early life:...
, “Prosper MériméeProsper MériméeProsper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
” - 1891: W. M. RossettiWilliam Michael RossettiWilliam Michael Rossetti was an English writer and critic.-Biography:Born in London, he was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and the brother of Maria Francesca Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti.He was one of the seven founder members of the...
, “LeopardiGiacomo LeopardiGiacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
” - 1892: T. W. RollestonT. W. RollestonThomas William Hazen Rolleston was an Irish writer, literary figure and translator, known as a poet but publishing over a wide range of literary and political topics...
, “LessingGotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
and Modern German Literature” - 1893 (delivered 1894): Stéphane MallarméStéphane MallarméStéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
, “La musique et les lettres” (Music and Literature) - 1894: Alfred Morel-FatioAlfred Morel-FatioAlfred Paul Victor Morel-Fatio was the leading French Hispanist of his time, educated at École des chartes, Paris....
, “L'Espagne du Don Quijote” - 1895: H. R. F. BrownHoratio BrownHoratio Robert Forbes Brown was a Scottish historian who specialized in the history of Venice and Italy.Born in Nice, he grew up in Midlothian, Scotland, was educated in England at Clifton and Oxford, and spent most of his life in Venice, publishing several books about the city...
, “Paolo SarpiPaolo SarpiFra Paolo Sarpi was a Venetian patriot, scholar, scientist and church reformer. His most important roles were as a canon lawyer and historian active on behalf of the Venetian Republic.- Early years :...
” - 1896 (delivered 1897): Paul BourgetPaul BourgetPaul Charles Joseph Bourget , was a French novelist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Amiens in the Somme département of Picardie, France. His father, a professor of mathematics, was later appointed to a post in the college at Clermont-Ferrand, where Bourget received his early education...
, “Gustave FlaubertGustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
” - 1897: C. H. HerfordC. H. HerfordCharles Harold Herford was an English literary scholar and critic. He is remembered principally for his biography and edition of the works of Ben Jonson in 11 volumes. This major scholarly project was published from 1925 onwards by Oxford University Press, and completed with Percy and Evelyn Simpson...
, “Goethe’s Italian Journey” - 1898: Henry Butler ClarkeHenry Butler ClarkeHenry Butler Clarke was a lecturer on Spanish at the University of Oxford's Taylor Institution from 1890 to 1894, and an author of books about Spanish literature and history...
, “The Spanish Rogue-StoryPicaresque novelThe picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...
” - 1899 (delivered 1900): W. P. Ker, “Boccaccio”
1900-1920
Further lectures were delivered in the first few years of the 20th century, but were not published collectively:- 1902: James Fitzmaurice-KellyJames Fitzmaurice-KellyJames Fitzmaurice-Kelly FBA was an English writer on Spanish literature.He was born in Glasgow to Colonel Thomas Kelly of the 40th Regiment of Foot and educated at St Charles's College, Kensington, where he learned Spanish from a fellow pupil and taught himself to read Don Quixote...
, “Lope De VegaLope de VegaFélix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
and Spanish Drama” - 1903: Henry Calthrop Hollway-Calthrop, “Francesco PetrarchaPetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
” - 1904: George SaintsburyGeorge SaintsburyGeorge Edward Bateman Saintsbury , was an English writer, literary historian, scholar and critic.-Biography:...
, “Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
: a French Man of Letters of All Work”
1920-1930
In 1917 a new endowment for an annual lecture on "subjects connected to Modern European Literature" was established by a donation of War Stock by Professors Charles FirthCharles Harding Firth
Sir Charles Harding Firth was a British historian.Born in Sheffield, he was educated at Clifton College and at Balliol College, Oxford...
and Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright (linguist)
Joseph Wright FBA was an English philologist who rose from humble origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University.-Early life:...
. This second series of lectures began in 1920. In 1930 a further volume of lectures was published, from the years 1920-1930, under the title Studies in European Literature, being the Taylorian Lectures Second Series, 1920—1930:
- 1920: Edmund GosseEdmund GosseSir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
, “MalherbeFrançois de MalherbeFrançois de Malherbe was a French poet, critic, and translator.-Life:Born in Le-Locheur , his family was of some position, though it seems not to have been able to establish to the satisfaction of heralds the claims which it made to nobility older than the 16th century.He was the eldest son of...
and the Classical Reaction in the Seventeenth Century” - 1921: Francis Yvon Eccles, “RacineJean RacineJean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
in England” - 1922: Sir Henry Thomas, “Shakespeare and Spain”
- 1923: Edmund Garratt GardnerEdmund Garratt GardnerEdmund Garratt Gardner FBA was an English scholar and writer, specializing in Italian history and literature. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he was regarded as one of the foremost British Dante scholars.-Career:...
, “Tommaso CampanellaTommaso CampanellaTommaso Campanella OP , baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.-Biography:...
and His Poetry” - 1924: John George Robertson, “The Gods of Greece in German Poetry”
- 1925: Émile Legouis, “G. G. de Beaurieu et son Élève de la nature, 1763”
- 1926: John Cann Bailey, “CarducciGiosuè CarducciGiosuè Alessandro Michele Carducci was an Italian poet and teacher. He was very influential and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.-Biography:...
” - 1927: Herbert FisherHerbert FisherHerbert Albert Laurens Fisher OM, FRS, PC was an English historian, educator, and Liberal politician. He served as President of the Board of Education in David Lloyd George's 1916 to 1922 coalition government....
, “Paul ValéryPaul ValéryAmbroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath...
” - 1928: Abraham FlexnerAbraham FlexnerAbraham Flexner was an American educator. His Flexner Report, published in 1910, reformed medical education in the United States...
, “The Burden of HumanismHumanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
” - 1929: Oliver EltonOliver EltonOliver Elton was an English literary scholar whose works include A Survey of English Literature in six volumes, criticism, biography, and translations from several languages including Icelandic and Russian...
, “ChekhovChekhov- People :* Alexander Chekhov, older brother of Anton Chekhov* Anton Chekhov , Russian writer** Chekhov Gymnasium, school, and now museum in Taganrog** Chekhov Library, public library in Taganrog** Anton Chekhov class motorship...
” - 1930: Percy Ewing MathesonPercy Ewing Matheson-Selected works:* A skeleton outline of Roman history * The Theory of the State by Johann Caspar Bluntschli * National ideals...
, “German Visitors to England, 1770-1795, and their impressions”
Since 1930
Since 1930 no collected volume has been issued, but individual lectures include:- 1931: Hilaire BellocHilaire BellocJoseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
, “On Translation” - 1932 (delivered 1933): George S. GordonGeorge Stuart GordonGeorge Stuart Gordon was a British literary scholar.Gordon was educated at Glasgow University, Oriel College, Oxford ....
, “St. EvremondCharles de Saint-ÉvremondCharles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond was a French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic. After 1661, he lived in exile, mainly in England, as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the peace of the Pyrenees . He is buried in Poets' Corner,...
” - 1933: Geoffrey Langdale Bickersteth, “Form, Tone, and Rhythm in Italian Poetry”
- 1934: Mario Roques, “La poésie Roumaine contemporaine”
- 1935: H. W. GarrodH. W. GarrodHeathcote William Garrod was a British classical scholar and literary scholar. He was Fellow of Merton College, Oxford for over 60 years...
, “Tolstoi'sLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
Theory of Art” - 1936: Herbert John Clifford GriersonHerbert John Clifford GriersonSir Herbert John Clifford Grierson was a Scottish literary scholar editor and literary critic.-Life and work:...
, “Two Dutch Poets” - 1937: Sir William Alexander Craigie, “The Art of Poetry in Iceland”
- 1938: Ernest Hoepffner, “Aux origines de la nouvelleCent Nouvelles nouvellesThe Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles is a collection of stories supposed to be narrated by various persons at the court of Philippe le Bon, and collected together by Antoine de la Sale in the mid-15th century....
française” - 1939: Edgar Allison PeersEdgar Allison PeersEdgar Allison Peers , also known by his pseudonym Bruce Truscot, was an English Hispanist and educationist. He was Professor in Hispanic Studies at the University of Liverpool and is notable for founding the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies .As "Bruce...
, “Antonio MachadoAntonio MachadoAntonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
” - 1942: Alf SommerfeltAlf SommerfeltAlf Sommerfelt , was a Norwegian linguist and the first professor of linguistics in Norway, working at the University of Oslo from 1931 to 1962.-Linguistics work:...
, “The Written and Spoken Word in Norway” - 1943: Stanisław Stroński, “La poésie et la réalité aux temps des troubadourTroubadourA troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s” (Poetry and reality at the time of the troubadours) - 1944: Pieter Sjoerds GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy was a Dutch politician of the Anti Revolutionary Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from September 3, 1940 until June 24, 1945. He was the Prime Minister of the Dutch government in exile during World War II...
, “National and International stability: Althusius, Grotius, van VollenhovenCornelis van VollenhovenCornelis van Vollenhoven was a Dutch law professor and legal scholar, best known for his work on the legal systems of the East Indies....
” - 1945: Richard McGillivray Dawkins, “The Nature of the Cypriot Chronicle of Leontios MakhairasLeontios MakhairasLeontios Machairas or Makhairas was a medieval Cypriot historian.The main source of information on him is his chronicle, written in the medieval Cypriot dialect. The chronicle documents events from the visit of Saint Helena to Cyprus until the times of the Kingdom of Cyprus...
” - 1946: H. J. Chaytor, “The Provençal Chanson de GesteChanson de gesteThe chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères and...
” - 1947: Leonard Ashley Willoughby, “Unity and Continuity in Goethe”
- 1948: John Orr, “The Impact of French upon English”
- 1949: Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, “Goethe und die Demokratie” - 1951: Jean Sarrailh, “La crise religieuse en Espagne à la fin du XVIIIe siècle”
- 1952: Bruno MiglioriniBruno MiglioriniBruno Migliorini was an Italian linguist and philologist. He was the author of one of the first scientific histories of Italian language and was president of the Accademia della Crusca.-Biography:...
, “The Contribution of the Individual to Language” - 1953: Charles Bruneau, “La proseProseProse is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
littéraire de Proust à CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
” - 1954: Francis BullFrancis BullFrancis Bull was a Norwegian literary historian, professor at the University of Oslo for more than thirty years, essayist and speaker, and magazine editor.-Early and personal life:...
, “Ibsen: The Man and the Dramatist” - 1955: Sir Harold Idris BellIdris BellSir Harold Idris Bell CB OBE was a British papyrologist and scholar of Welsh literature....
, “The Nature of Poetry as Conceived by the Welsh BardBardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
s” - 1957: Frederick Charles Roe, “Sir Thomas UrquhartThomas UrquhartSir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty was a Scottish writer and translator, most famous for his translation of Rabelais.-Life:...
and Rabelais” - 1959: Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson, “Schiller, Poet or Philosopher?”
- 1961: Cecil Maurice Bowra, “Poetry and the First World War”
- 1966: Edward M. Wilson, “Some Aspects of Spanish Literary History” (published 1967)
- 1967: Charles Ralph Boxer, “Some Literary Sources for the History of Brazil in the Eighteenth Century”
- 1968: Walter Höllerer, “Elite und Utopie: Zum 100. Geburtstag Stefan GeorgeStefan GeorgeStefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
s” (published 1969) - 1971: Carlo Dionisotti, “Europe in Sixteenth-Century Italian Literature”
- 1975: Harry LevinHarry LevinHarry Tuchman Levin was an American literary critic and scholar of modernism and comparative literature.-Biography:...
, “Ezra PoundEzra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
and the European Horizon” - 1978: R. A. LeighRalph LeighRalph Alexander Leigh CBE FBA was a modern languages scholar, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor of French in the University of Cambridge from 1973 to 1982, later Sandars Reader in Bibliography, in 1986–87...
, “Rousseau and the Problem of Tolerance in the Eighteenth Century” - 1983: P. E. Russell, “Prince Henry the Navigator: The Rise and Fall of a Culture Hero” (published 1984)
- 1987: Paul PrestonPaul PrestonPaul Preston CBE is a British historian and Hispanist, specialized in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years....
, “Salvador de MadariagaSalvador de MadariagaSalvador de Madariaga y Rojo was a Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist. He had two daughters....
and the Quest for Liberty in Spain” - 1992: Barry Ife, “The New World and the Literary Imagination”
- 2008: Jeffrey Hamburger, “Representations of Reading – Reading Representations: The Female Reader from the Hedwig Codex to Châtillon’s Léopoldine au Livre d’Heures”
- 2009: Maria de Fátima Silva, “Returning to the Classics in Contemporary Portuguese Drama (with special reference to Hélia CorreiaHélia CorreiaHélia Correia is a Portuguese writer, born in Lisbon. At university, she read Romance Philology. After a period working as a high school teacher, Hélia Correia undertook postgraduate studies in Classical Theatre. Her literary career started in earnest in the 1980s and she quickly achieved great...
’s dramatic works)” - 2010: Lina Bolzoni, “Of Poetry, Poets and the Magic of Mirrors in the Renaissance”