The Sir Robert Rede's Lecturer is an annual appointment to give a public lecture, the Sir Robert Rede's Lecture (usually Rede Lecture) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. It is named for Sir Robert Rede, who was

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the common pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench, which was the second-highest common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body ...

in the sixteenth century.

Initial series

The initial series of lectures ranges from around 1668 to around 1856. In principle, there were three lectureships each year, on Logic, Philosophy and Rhetoric. These differed from the later individual lectures, in that they were appointments to a lectureship for a period of time, rather than an appointment for a one-off annual lecture. There was also a Mathematics lectureship which dated from an earlier time, while another term used was "Barnaby Lecturer", as the lecturers were elected on St Barnabas Day. A selection of the lecturers, who tended to have studied at Cambridge and be appointed after becoming Fellows of a College, is given below, with a full listing given in the sources.

Mathematics Lecturers

*1550 James Pilkington *1593

William Alabaster William Alabaster (also Alablaster, Arblastier) (27 February 1567buried 28 April 1640) was an English Neo-Latin poet, playwright, and religious writer. Alabaster became a Roman Catholic convert in Spain when on a diplomatic mission as chapla ...

*1641

Ralph Cudworth Ralph Cudworth (; 1617 – 26 June 1688) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian Hebraist, classicist, theologian and philosopher, and a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists who became 11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (Cambr ...

*1643 Nathaniel Culverwell

Barnaby Lecturers

*1776 Thomas Starkie the Elder (Mathematics) *1738 Charles Moss (Mathematics) *1746 John Berridge (Mathematics) *1755

John Michell John Michell (; 25 December 1724 – 21 April 1793) was an English natural philosopher and clergyman who provided pioneering insights into a wide range of scientific fields including astronomy, geology, optics, and gravitation. Considered "on ...

(Mathematics) *1758 Thomas Postlethwaite (Mathematics) *1763 John Jebb (Mathematics) *1765 Richard Watson (Mathematics) *1770

William Paley William Paley (July 174325 May 1805) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, philosopher, and Utilitarianism, utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument ...

(Mathematics) *1783

William Farish William Farish may refer to: * William Farish (chemist) (1759–1837), tutor at the University of Cambridge * William Stamps Farish I (1843–1899) * William Stamps Farish II (1881–1942), Standard Oil president * William Stamps Farish III (born 1 ...

(Mathematics) *1789 Francis John Hyde Wollaston (Mathematics) *1807 Robert Woodhouse (Mathematics) *1831 John Stevens Henslow (Mathematics) *1842 David Thomas Ansted (Mathematics) *1846

George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet, (; 13 August 1819 – 1 February 1903) was an Irish mathematician and physicist. Born in County Sligo, Ireland, Stokes spent his entire career at the University of Cambridge, where he served as the Lucasi ...

(Mathematics) *1851 Henry Richards Luard (Mathematics) *1855 Richard Shilleto (Mathematics)

Rede Lecturers

*1706 John Addenbrooke (Logic) *1717 John Addenbrooke (Logic) *1723 John Jortin (Rhetoric) *1730 Edmund Law (Rhetoric) *1740 Thomas Pyle (Rhetoric) *1763 Richard Watson (Philosophy) *1764 John Jebb (Rhetoric) *1781 George Pretyman (Philosophy) *1783 Isaac Milner (Philosophy) *1785

(Logic) *1785 Joseph Dacre Carlyle (Rhetoric) *1794 Bewick Bridge (Logic) *1796 Bewick Bridge (Logic) *1798 George Butler (Logic) *1803 Bewick Bridge (Rhetoric) *1805 Ralph Tatham (Philosophy) *1806 George Cecil Renouard (Philosophy) *1809 Henry Bickersteth (Logic) *1812 John Kaye (Logic) *1819 George Peacock (Philosophy) *1822 Connop Thirlwall (Logic) *1825 John Stevens Henslow (Philosophy) *1828 Joshua King (Rhetoric) *1837 Edward Harold Browne (Philosophy) *1838

Samuel Earnshaw Samuel Earnshaw (1 February 1805, Sheffield, Yorkshire – 6 December 1888, Sheffield, Yorkshire) was an English clergyman and mathematician and physicist, noted for his contributions to theoretical physics, especially for proving Earnshaw' ...

(Philosophy) *1843 John William Colenso (Philosophy) *1844 Joseph Woolley (Rhetoric) *1846 Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro (Philosophy) *1850 Charles Anthony Swainson (Logic) *1851 John James Stewart Perowne (Philosophy) *1853

John Couch Adams John Couch Adams ( ; 5 June 1819 – 21 January 1892) was a British mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall, and died in Cambridge. His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position o ...

(Philosophy) *1853 John James Stewart Perowne (Rhetoric)

New series

From 1858, the lecture was re-established as a one-off annual lecture, delivered by a person appointed by the Vice-Chancellor of the university. The names of the appointees and the titles of their lectures are given below.

1858-1899

*1859

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkabl ...

''On the classifaction and geographical distribution of the Mammalia'' *1860 John Phillips ''Life on the earth, its origin and succession'' *1861 Robert Willis ''The social and architectural history of Trinity College'' *1862 Edward Sabine ''The cosmical features of terrestrial magnetism'' *1863 David Thomas Ansted ''The correlation of the natural history sciences'' *1864

George Biddell Airy Sir George Biddell Airy (; 27 July 18012 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, as well as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1826 to 1828 and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements inc ...

''The late observations of total eclipses of the sun, and the inferences from them'' *1865 John Tyndall ''On Radiation'' *1866 William Thomson ''The dissipation of energy'' *1867

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

''The relation of national ethics to national art'' *1868 Friedrich Max Müller ''On the stratification of language'' *1869 William Huggins ''On the results of spectrum analysis of the heavenly bodies'' *1870 William Allen Miller ''On some chemical processes of forming organic compounds, with illustrations from the coal tar colours'' *1871 Joseph Norman Lockyer ''Recent solar discoveries'' *1872 Edward Augustus Freeman ''The Unity of History'' *1873 Peter Guthrie Tait ''Thermo-electricity'' *1874 Samuel White Baker ''Slavery'' *1875 Henry James Sumner Maine ''The effects of observation of India upon modern European thought'' *1876

Samuel Birch Samuel Birch may refer to: * Samuel Birch (Egyptologist) (1813–1885), British Egyptologist and antiquary * Lamorna Birch (Samuel John Birch, 1869–1955), English artist * Samuel Birch (athlete) (born 1963), Liberian Olympic sprinter * Samuel Birc ...

''The monumental history of ancient Egypt'' *1877 Charles Wyville Thomson ''On some of the results of the expedition of H.M.S. Challenger'' *1878

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...

''On the telephone'' *1879 William Henry Dallinger 'The origin of life, illustrated by the life histories of the least and lowest organisms in nature' *1880 George Murray Humphry 'Man, prehistoric, present, future' *1881

William Muir Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish oriental studies, Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces of British Raj, Brit ...

''The early Caliphate'' *1882

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

''Literature and Science'' *1883 Thomas Henry Huxley The origin of the existing forms of animal life: construction or evolution?'' *1884

Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911) was an English polymath and the originator of eugenics during the Victorian era; his ideas later became the basis of behavioural genetics. Galton produced over 340 papers and b ...

''The Measurement of Human Faculty'' *1885 George John Romanes ''Mind and motion'' *1886

John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury (30 April 1834 – 28 May 1913), known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet, from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked ...

''On the forms of seedlings and the causes to which they are due'' *1887

John Robert Seeley Sir John Robert Seeley, Order of St. Michael and St. George, KCMG (10 September 1834 – 13 January 1895) was an English Liberal Party (UK), Liberal historian and political essayist. A founder of British imperial history, he was a prominent adv ...

''Greater Britain in the Georgian and in the Victorian era'' *1888 Frederick Augustus Abel ''Applications of science to the protection of human life'' *1889

''On some effects of the action of light on ponderable matter'' *1890 Richard Claverhouse Jebb ''

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

'' *1891 Alfred Comyn Lyall ''Natural religion in India'' *1892 Thomas George Bonney ''The microscope's contributions to the earth's physical history'' *1893 Michael Foster ''Weariness'' *1894 John Willis Clark '' Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods'' *1895

Mandell Creighton Mandell Creighton (; 5 July 1843 – 14 January 1901) was a British historian, Anglican priest and bishop. The son of a successful carpenter in north-west England, Creighton studied at the University of Oxford, focusing his scholarship on ...

'' The Early Renaissance in England'' *1896 J. J. Thomson ''Röntgen rays'' *1897 Arthur William Rücker ''Recent researches on terrestrial magnetism'' *1898

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

''The theatre in its relation to the state'' *1899

Marie Alfred Cornu Marie Alfred Cornu (; 6 March 1841 – 12 April 1902) was a French physicist and professor of École polytechnique. The French generally refer to him as Alfred Cornu. The Cornu spiral, a graphical device for the computation of light intensities ...

''La théorie des ondes lumineuses: son influence sur la physique moderne''

1900-1949

*1900 Frederic Harrison ''Byzantine history in the early middle age'' *1901 Frederic William Maitland '' English Law and the Renaissance'' *1902

Osborne Reynolds Osborne Reynolds (23 August 1842 – 21 February 1912) was an Irish-born British innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics. Separately, his studies of heat transfer between solids and fluids brought improvements in boiler and condenser ...

''On an inversion of ideas as to the structure of the Universe'' *1903 George Walter Prothero ''Napoleon III and the Second Empire'' *1904

James Alfred Ewing Sir James Alfred Ewing MInstitCE (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, ''hy ...

''The structure of metals'' *1905 Francis Edward Younghusband ''Our true relationship with India'' *1906

William Mitchell Ramsay Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (15 March 185120 April 1939) was a British archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor, and a leading scholar in the study of the New Testament. R ...

''The wars between Moslem and Christian for the possession of Asia Minor'' *1907

Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb, (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

''The art of architecture, and the training required to practise it'' *1908

Ernest Mason Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

''An Austrian diplomatist in the fifties'' *1909 Archibald Geikie ''Charles Darwin as Geologist'' *1910 Charles Harding Firth ''The parallel between the English and American Civil Wars'' *1911 Charles Algernon Parsons '' The Steam Turbine'' *1912 George Gilbert Aimé Murray ''The chorus in Greek tragedy'' *1913 George Nathaniel Curzon ''Modern Parliamentary Eloquence'' *1914 Norman Moore ''St Bartholomew's Hospital in peace and war'' *1915

Frederic George Kenyon Sir Frederic George Kenyon (15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was an English palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the British Museum from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the British Academy ...

''Ideals and characteristics of English culture'' *1916 George Forrest Browne ''The ancient cross-shafts of Bewcastle and Ruthwell'' *1917 Richard Tetley Glazebrook ''Science and industry'' *1918 Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven ''The Royal Navy, 1815–1915'' *1919 Lord Moulton, '' Science and War'' *1920 James Scorgie Meston, 1st Baron Meston ''India at the crossways'' *1921 William Napier Shaw ''The air and its ways'' *1922 William Ralph Inge '' The Victorian Age'' *1923

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Hendrik Antoon Lorentz ( ; ; 18 July 1853 – 4 February 1928) was a Dutch theoretical physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He derived ...

''Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory'' *1924 Herbert Hensley Henson ''Byron'' *1925

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among ...

''Some notes on the evolution of the English novel'' *1926 Arthur Mayger Hind '' Claude Lorrain and modern art'' *1927 Josiah Stamp ''On stimulus in the economic life'' *1928 Michael Ernest Sadler ''Thomas Day: an English disciple of Rousseau'' *1929

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

''The Causal and the Casual in History'' *1930 James Hopwood Jeans ''The mysterious universe'', resulting in the book '' The Mysterious Universe'' *1931 George Stuart Gordon '' Robert Bridges'' *1932

Edgar Allison Peers Edgar Allison Peers (7 May 1891 – 21 December 1952), also known by his pseudonym Bruce Truscot, was an English Hispanist and education management scholar.W. C. Atkinson, 'Peers, Edgar Allison (1891–1952)’, rev. John D. Haigh, ''Oxford ...

''St. John of the Cross'' *1933

Charles Scott Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was a British neurophysiology, neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a ...

''Brain and its mechanism'' *1934 Hugh Pattison Macmillan ''Two ways of thinking'' *1935 Alfred Daniel Hall ''The pace of progress'' *1936 Cedric Webster Hardwicke ''The drama to-morrow'' *1937 Harold George Nicolson ''The Meaning Of Prestige'' *1938 Patrick Playfair Laidlaw ''Virus diseases and viruses'' *1939 Edward Mellanby ''Some social and economic implications of the recent advances in medical science'' *1940 Augustus Moore Daniel ''Some approaches to judgment in painting'' *1941 E. M. Forster ''Virginia Woolf'' *1942

Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action ...

''American opinion of the war'' *1943

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

''Lytton Strachey's writings'' *1944 Richard Winn Livingstone ''Plato and modern education'' *1945 Norman Birkett ''National Parks and the countryside'' *1946 Edward Victor Appleton ''Terrestrial magnetism and the ionosphere'' *1947 Hubert Douglas Henderson ''The uses and abuses of economic planning'' *1948 Walter Hamilton Moberly ''Universities and the state'' *1949 Ernest William Barnes ''Religion and turmoil''

1950-1999

*1950 Edward Bridges ''Portrait of a Profession'' *1951 Cecil Maurice Bowra ''Inspiration and poetry'' *1952 Walter Russell Brain ''The Contribution of Medicine to our Idea of the Mind'' *1953 Arthur Duncan Gardner ''The proper study of mankind'' *1954 Charles Alfred Coulson ''Science and religion: a changing relationship'' *1955 Lord David Cecil ''Walter Pater - the Scholar Artist'' *1956 John Betjeman ''The English Town in the Last Hundred Years'' *1957 Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer ''Matthew Prior'' *1958 Charles Galton Darwin ''The problems of world population'' *1959 C. P. Snow '' The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution'' *1960 Edgar Wind ''Classicism'' *1961 Lord Radcliffe ''Censors'' *1962 Robert Hall ''Planning'' *1963 Douglas William Logan The Years of Challenge *1964 Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson ''The oldest Irish tradition - a window on the early Iron Age'' *1965 Gavin de Beer ''Genetics and prehistory'' *1966 Harold McCarter Taylor ''Why should we study the Anglo-Saxons?'' *1967 Kenneth Wheare ''The university in the news'' *1968 Patrick Arthur Devlin, Lord Devlin ''The House of Lords and the Naval Prize Bill 1911'' *1969 Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett ''The gap widens'' *1970

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

''The artist grows old'' *1971 Herbert Butterfield ''The discontinuities between the generations in History: their effect on the transmission of political experience'' *1972 None *1973 Kingsley Dunham ''Non-renewable resources - a dilemma'' *1974 Walter Laing Macdonald Perry ''Higher education for adults: where more means better'' *1975 Alfred Alistair Cooke ''The American in England: from Emerson to S. J. Perelman'' *1976 Rupert Cross ''The golden thread of English Criminal Law: the burden of proof'' *1977 Richard Southern ''The historical experience'' *1978 Margaret Gowing ''Reflections on Atomic Energy History'' *1979 The Duke of Edinburgh ''Philosophy, politics and administration'' *1980 Shirley Williams ''Technology, employment, and change'' *1981 Frederick Sydney Dainton ''British universities: purposes, problems, and pressures'' *1982

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper, B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on oth ...

Facts and Dogmas in Cosmology and Elsewhere *1983 David Towry Piper ''The increase of learning and other great objects'' *1984 Sir Clive Sinclair ''A time for change'' *1985 Brian Urquhart ''The United Nations and international law'' *1986

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

''Islands'' *1987 Sir John Thompson ''A reconsideration of the ideas underlying the international system'' *1988

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliamen ...

''Lord Jenkins of Hillhead; 'An Oxford view of Cambridge' '' *1989 Peter Alexander Ustinov ''Communication'' *1990 The Princess Royal ''What is Punishment for and How Does it Relate to the Concept of Community?'' *1991 Peter Swinnerton-Dyer ''Policy on Higher Education and Research'' *1993 L. M. Singhvi A Tale of Three Cities *1994 Geoffrey Howe ''Nationalism and the Nation State'' *1996

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...

''Civil Society: Renewal At Work'' *1997 Leon Brittan ''Globalisation vs. Sovereignty? The European Response'' *1998 Rosalyn Higgins ''International Law in a Changing Legal System''

2000 onwards

*2009

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao ( zh, s=温家宝, p=Wēn Jiābǎo; born 15 September 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the 6th premier of China from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behin ...

''See China in the Light of Her Development'' *2010 Onora O'Neill ''The Two Cultures Fifty Years On'' *2011

Harold Varmus Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center. He was ...

''The Purpose and Conduct of Science'' *2012 Lord Turner of Ecchinswell ''The Purpose of the University: Knowledge and Human Wellbeing in the Modern Economy'' *2015

Drew Gilpin Faust Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18, 1947) is an American historian who served as the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman in that role. She was Harvard's first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or graduat ...

''Two Wars and the Long Twentieth Century: the United States, 1861–65; Britain 1914–18'' *2017 Sue Desmond-Hellmann ''Facts or Fear? The Case for Facts'' *2019 Jane Goodall ''Reasons for Hope'' *2024

Mary Beard (classicist) Dame Winifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955) is an English classicist specialising in Ancient Rome. She is a trustee of the British Museum and formerly held a personal professorship of classics at the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow ...

''The boy who breathed on the glass at the British Museum''https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/mary-beard-give-sir-robert-redes-lecture-2024

Notes

External links

Listing
{{Authority control Lecture series at the University of Cambridge 1668 establishments in England Recurring events established in 1668