Rosamond Deborah McKitterick (born 31 May 1949) is an English

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 ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

, and

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

of the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

. From 1999 until 2016 she was Professor of Medieval History and director of research 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 ...

. She is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Professor Emerita of Medieval History in the University of Cambridge.

Early life and education

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 Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

where she completed primary and secondary school and completed an honours degree at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. She holds the degrees of MA, PhD, and LittD from the University of Cambridge. McKitterick's doctoral thesis was entitled ''The

Carolingian Renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne's reign led to an intellectual revival beginning in the 8th century and continuing throughout the 9th ...

: A Study in the Education of a Society''. It was submitted under McKitterick's maiden name of Pierce. The thesis was approved on 24 February 1976. McKitterick's supervisor was Walter Ullmann.

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." Thomas F. X. Noble considers McKitterick to be "one of the most original and productive historians of Europe's early Middle Ages". She has supervised 42 PhD theses to completion, as of October 2015, with five more in progress. She has been a member of the council of the

British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

Honours

McKitterick was a Balsdon Fellow at the British School in Rome, April–June 2002. Her research focus was "Charlemagne in Italy". From 2005 to 2006 she was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study. In 2010 McKitterick was awarded the Dr A. H. Heineken International Prize for History by the Royal Dutch Academy. The prize was established in 1990 and is awarded bi-annually for outstanding scholarly achievement in the field of history. Other awardees include Judith Herrin and Aleida Assman. In 2015 McKitterick was elected to the Lectio Chair at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven's Centre for the Transmission of Texts and Ideas in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. On 16 March 2017, McKitterick was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). She is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).Biographical Details at
Sidney Sussex She was the President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2018–19). McKitterick is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. On 15 October 2018 McKitterick delivered the James Lydon Lecture in Medieval History and Culture at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

with "Rome and the Invention of the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages". In 2018 McKitterick was honoured with a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'', ''Writing the Early Medieval West'', to mark her retirement in September 2016. The volume consists of contributions from fifteen of McKitterick's former students.

Personal life

She married David McKitterick, Librarian of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, in 1976. They have one daughter. In May 2016, McKitterick was one of 300 prominent historians, including Simon Schama and

Niall Ferguson Sir Niall Campbell Ferguson, ( ; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson

, who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', telling voters that if they chose to leave the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

on 23 June, they would be condemning Britain to irrelevance.

Publications

Monographs

*''The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789–895'' (1977) *''The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987'' (1983) * *''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) *''Rome and the Invention of the Papacy: The Liber Pontificalis'' (2020) Edited volumes * (ed. with Dorothy Whitelock and David Dumville) ''Ireland in Mediaeval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) * (ed.) ''The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe'' (1990) * (ed. with Lida Lopes Cardozo) ''Lasting Letters: An Inscription for the Abbots of St Albans'' (Cambridge: Kindersley Cardozo 1992) * (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: Cambridge University Press, 1997) * (ed.) ''The Early Middle Ages, 400–1000'' (2001) * (ed.) ''Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) * (ed.) ''Atlas of the Medieval World'' (2004)

''Festschrift''

* ''Writing the Early Medieval West'', edited by Elina Screen and Charles West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Articles and book chapters

* "''Knowledge of Canon Law in the Frankish Kingdoms Before 789: The Manuscript Evidence''", ''The Journal of Theological Studies'', NEW SERIES, Vol. 36, No. 1 (APRIL 1985), pp. 97–117; Oxford Journals, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, London * "''The Papacy and Byzantium in the Seventh- and Early Eighth-Century Sections of the'' Liber Pontificalis", ''Papers of the British School in Rome'', 84 (2016) 241–73 * "''The Popes as Rulers of Rome in the Aftermath of Empire, 476–769''", with Stewart J. Brown, Charlotte Methuen and Andrew Spicer, ''Studies In Church History'', 54 (2018) 71–95

References

External links

* – video from State Library Victoria {{DEFAULTSORT:McKitterick, Rosamond Living people 1949 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America British women medievalists English palaeographers English women historians Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Historians of France Historians of monarchy and royalty People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire Presidents of the Ecclesiastical History Society Professors of Medieval History (Cambridge) University of Western Australia alumni Winners of the Heineken Prize