Rosamond McKitterick

Rosamond Deborah McKitterick, FSA, FRHistS (born 31 May 1949) is a British medieval historian, whose work focuses on the Frankish kingdoms in the 8th and 9th centuries, using palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the political, cultural, intellectual, religious and social history of the early Middle Ages. Now Professor Emerita, from 1999 until 2016 she was Professor of Medieval History and Director of Research at the University of Cambridge.^[1]

Early life

McKitterick was born Rosamond Pierce in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, on 31 May 1949. From 1951 to 1956 she lived in Cambridge, England, where her father had a position at Magdalene College. In 1956 she moved with her family to Western Australia where she completed primary and secondary school and completed an honours degree at the University of Western Australia. She holds the degrees of M.A., Ph.D., and Litt.D from the University of Cambridge.^[2]

Academic career

In 1971 she returned to Cambridge University to pursue her career. She was a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and then became a professorial fellow of Sidney Sussex College. McKitterick has been described as a 'doyenne in her field; her decades of tireless research and teaching have been poured into a steady stream of major publications on Carolingian subjects.'^[3]

Honours

In 2010 McKitterick was awarded the Dr A.H. Heineken International Prize for History by the Royal Dutch Academy.^[4] The prize was established in 1990 and is awarded bi-annually for outstanding scholarly achievement in the field of history.^[5] Other awardees include Judith Herrin and Aleida Assman.

On 16 March 2017, McKitterick was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).^[6] She is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).^[7] On 15 October 2018 McKitterick will deliver the James Lydon Lecture in Medieval History and Culture at Trinity College Dublin with 'Rome and the Invention of the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages'.^[8]

Personal life

She married David John McKitterick, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge,^[9] in 1976 and they have one daughter.^[10]

Selected books

• The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789-895 (1977)
• The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987 (1983)
• The Carolingians and the Written Word (1989)
• Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th to 9th Centuries. (Collected Studies; 452.) Aldershot: Variorum, (1994)
• The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages (1995)
• History and Memory in the Carolingian World (2004)
• Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (2006)
• Charlemagne: the formation of a European identity (2008)

Books as editor

• (ed.) The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990)
• (ed.) Carolingian Culture: emulation and innovation (1994)
• (ed.) The New Cambridge Medieval History, II: c.700 - c.900 (1995)
• (ed., with Roland Quinault) Edward Gibbon and Empire Cambridge University Press (1997)
• (ed.) The Early Middle Ages, 400-1000 (2001)
• (ed.) Atlas of the Medieval World (2004)

References