David William Holton (born Northampton 1946) is Emeritus Professor of

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

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 ...

. He was educated at

Northampton Grammar School Northampton School for Boys (NSB) is an 11–18 boys secondary school in Northampton, England. It was founded as Northampton Grammar School in 1541 by Thomas Chipsey, Mayor of Northampton. Years 7 to 11 are boys-only, while sixth form classes ar ...

and

Hertford College Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, 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 List of oldest un ...

, where he studied Classics and Medieval and Modern Greek. He completed his DPhil thesis at Oxford in 1971. From 1973 until 1975 he was a Research Fellow at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, where he also worked as a university administrator (1975-1981). In 1981 he was appointed Lewis-Gibson Lecturer in Modern Greek at the

; in 1982 he became a Fellow of Selwyn College. He was promoted to Reader in 2000 and Professor of Modern Greek in 2006, and retired in 2013. He specialises in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and modern

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, with special reference to the romance genre, early printing,

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

under Venetian rule, and the history and present structure of Greek. He directed the AHRC research project which produced the four-volume ''Cambridge Grammar of Medieval and Early Modern Greek'', co-authored with Geoffrey Horrocks, (Emeritus Professor of Comparative Philology and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge), Marjolijne Janssen, Tina Lendari, Io Manolessou and Panagiotis Toufexis, published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press. This monumental work is the world's first grammar of the vernacular Greek of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and the Early Modern period (up to c. 1700).Grammar of Medieval Greek project
, Modern & Medieval Languages, Modern Greek Section, University of Cambridge

Works (selection)

* «Τα πολιτισμικά συμφραζόμενα της κυπριακής Συλλογής: Η σχέση της με τα μαδριγάλια του Giandomenico Martoretta», in: Marina Rodosthenous-Balafa (ed.), Μελέτες για την κυπριακή Συλλογή Αναγεννησιακών ποιημάτων. Athens: Ethniko Idryma Erevnon 2022 pp. 21-52. * «Τι διάβασε ο Βιτσέντζος Κορνάρος πριν γράψει τον Ερωτόκριτο;», in: M. Hnaraki (ed.), ''«Γιατί... Ερωτόκριτος στον 21ο αιώνα στην Κρήτη και τον Κόσμο;» / “Why... Erotokritos in the 21st century in Crete and the world?”.'' Πεπραγμένα Συνεδρίου. Heraklion: World Council of Cretans 2021, pp. 39-54. * «Γιατί χρειάζεται μια γραμματική της μεσαιωνικής και πρώιμης νέας ελληνικής;», in: Vasileios Sabatakakis (ed.), ''Στ΄ Ευρωπαϊκό Συνέδριο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών της Ευρωπαϊκής Εταιρείας Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών. Ο ελληνικός κόσμος σε περιόδους κρίσης και ανάκαμψης, 1204-2018.'' Λουντ, 4-7 Οκτωβρίου 2018: Πρακτικά. Athens 2020. Τόμος Γ΄, pp. 395-404. * “Kazantzakis in Cambridge.” In P. Mackridge and D. Ricks (eds.). ''The British Council and Anglo-Greek literary interactions, 1945-1955.'' Abingdon: Routledge 2020, pp. 215-26. * Eleni Papargyriou, Semele Assinder and David Holton (eds.), ''Greece in British Women's Literary Imagination, 1913-2013.'' New York: Peter Lang 2017. * “The Tragic, the Comic and the Tragicomic in Cretan Renaissance Literature.” In Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns (eds.), ''Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2017, pp. 375-89. * “The role of translation in early Cypriot literature.” In M. Pieris (ed.), ''Διά ανθύμησιν καιρού και τόπου. Λογοτεχνικές Αποτυπώσεις του Κόσμου της Κύπρου.'' Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Επιστημονικού Συνεδρίου, Λευκωσία, 6-9 Οκτωβρίου 2012. Nicosia 2015, pp. 239-53. * “Ξαναδιαβάζοντας τον Ερωτόκριτο.” In ''Ο κόσμος του Ερωτόκριτου και ο Ερωτόκριτος στον κόσμο.'' Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Επιστημονικού Συνεδρίου (Σητεία, 31/7-2/8/2009). Επιμέλεια: Τασούλα Μ. Μαρκομιχελάκη. Heraklion: Dimos Siteias 2012, pp. 29-42. * (with Peter Mackridge and Irene Philippaki-Warburton) ''Greek: a comprehensive grammar.'' 2nd edition. Revised by Vassilios Spyropoulos (London: Routledge 2012). * "The first Modern Greek printed book: Apokopos (1509)", ''The Anglo-Hellenic Review'' 42 (Autumn 2010) 16-19 * David Holton, Tina Lendari, Ulrich Moennig, Peter Vejleskov (eds.): ''Copyists, Collectors, Redactors and Editors: Manuscripts and Editions of Late Byzantine and Early Modern Greek Literature. Papers given at a Conference held at the Danish Institute at Athens, 23–26 May 2002, in honour of Hans Eideneier and Arnold van Gemert''. Herakleion: Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις Κρήτης, Herakleion 2005, S. 251–273. * "Modern Greek: towards a standard language or a new diglossia?", in: M.C. Jones and E. Esch (eds.), ''Language change: the interplay of internal, external and extra-linguistic factors'' (Berlin - New York: Mouton de Gruyter 2002), pp. 169–79. * ''Διήγησις του Αλεξάνδρου. The Tale of Alexander. The Rhymed Version.'' Critical edition with introduction and commentary. Morfotiko Idryma Ethnikis Trapezis, Athens 2002. * ''Μελέτες για τον Ερωτόκριτο και άλλα νεοελληνικά κείμενα,'' Kastaniotis, Athens 2001. (Studies on

Erotokritos ''Erotokritos'' () is a romance composed by Vikentios Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses, the last twelve of which refer to the poet himself. It is written in the Cretan dialect of the G ...

and other modern Greek texts). * (ed.) ''Literature and society in Renaissance Crete.'' Cambridge University Press, 1991, . * (with Peter Mackridge, Irene Philippaki-Warburton): ''Greek. A comprehensive grammar of the modern language.'' Routledge, London 1997. Greek translation: Patakis, Athens 1999. * (with Peter Mackridge, Irene Philippaki-Warburton): ''Greek. An essential grammar of the modern language.'' Routledge, London 2004. Greek translation: Patakis, Athens 2007. * "Classical Antiquity and Cretan Renaissance Poetry." In: ''Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora'', 27.1-2, 2001, pp. 87–101
brynmawr.edu
(PDF).

References

External links

Personal page
Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages and Linguistics, Modern Greek Section, University of Cambridge * Damian Mac Con Uladh
''A neo-Hellenist philhellene''.
In: ''Athens News'', 20. Juli 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Holton, David Scholars of Medieval Greek Fellows of Selwyn College, Cambridge 1946 births Living people People educated at Northampton School for Boys Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford