Arthur George Rigg (17 February 1937 – 7 January 2019) was a British academic and medievalist. Rigg was born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

on 17 February 1937, and attended

Wigan Grammar School Wigan Grammar School was founded in 1597; and closed in 1972 as part of the comprehensive education movement. Notable former pupils * Ivor Abrahams, sculptor * Stanley Alstead CBE, Regius Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics from 1948-70 ...

. He enrolled at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

between 1955 and 1959, and also earned a doctorate at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. As a doctoral student, Rigg taught at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...

and

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

. Rigg was visiting assistant professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 1966 to 1968, after which he moved to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Rigg dedicated himself to two initiatives designed to make the University of Toronto a high standard academic environment for learning and studying medieval Latin in North America. Both initiatives were undertaken in close collaboration with the academic staff at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. The first involved a new Latin programme, comprising two different levels, M.A. and PhD. Rigg chaired the Latin committee and taught the M.A. and PhD Latin courses in alternate years. The rigorous Latin standards established by him made the Toronto Latin programme unique. The second initiative was the Toronto Medieval Latin Texts series. Rigg was the editor between 1972 and 2008 during which time thirty volumes were printed, including his own ''A Book of British Kings: 1200 BC–1399 AD''. The idea behind the series was to provide students and instructors with affordable editions of representative Latin texts which were based on selected manuscripts and included notes for the student. During his academic career, Rigg wrote over sixty articles in books or leading academic journals. Rigg was elected a fellow of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

in 1997 and of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

in 1998, and was granted emeritus status upon retirement in 2002. He died on 7 January 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigg, A. G. 1937 births 2019 deaths British medievalists British expatriate academics in Canada Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Academic staff of the University of Toronto People from Wigan