English historian and medievalist (1928–2020)
Antonia Gransden (née Morland; 7 October 1928 – 18 January 2020), English historian and medievalist, was Reader in Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. She was author of works in medieval historiography, including the massive two-volume study Historical Writing in England, covering a thousand years of historical writing from the 6th to the 16th century.[1]
Work at the British Museum fuelled her fascination with the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. She then went on to edit the records of the abbey, resulting in a two-volume History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmonds, which she completed aged 86.
Life
Gransden was born Antonia Morland.[2] Her father was a director of Morlands clothing company in Glastonbury, Somerset.[1] Educated at Dartington Hall and Somerville College, Oxford, she gained a first class degree and studied for a PhD. She spent a decade as assistant keeper in the British Museum reading room from 1952, before joining Nottingham University as an assistant lecturer in 1964.[1] She married Ken Gransden in 1957 and the couple had two daughters. However, the marriage was dissolved in 1977.[3] She retired from Nottingham University in 1989.[1]
Antonia Gransden was a long-standing member of the Labour Party, and an advocate for women's rights to education, equal pay and opportunities. She died on 18 January 2020 at the age of 91.[1] At the time of her death her "magisterial" two volumes on Historical Writing in England remained unsurpassed.[4]
Select bibliography
- A Critical Edition of the Bury St. Edmunds Chronicle in Arundel MS 30 (College of Arms), London: University of London, 1956.
- (ed.) The Letter-Book of William of Hoo, Sacrist of Bury St. Edmunds, 1280–1294, Publications, Vol. 5, Ipswich: Suffolk Records Society, 1963.
- (ed. & trans.) The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds 1212–1301, Nelson's Medieval Texts, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1964.
- (ed.) Customary of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, Vol. 99, London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1970.
- Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.
- Historical Writing in England ii c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
- Legends, Traditions, and History in Medieval England, London: Hambledon Press, 1992.
- A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257–1301: Simon of Luton and John of Northwold, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, Vol. 42, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2015.
- (ed.) Bury St Edmunds: Medieval Art, Architecture, Archaeology, and Economy, Abingdon: Routledge, 2020, ISBN 978-1-351-57288-0.
References
- ^ a b c d e James Clark (16 February 2020). "Antonia Gransden obituary".
- ^ "Antonia Gransden, 91: Medievalist, watercolourist and friend of EM Forster". The Times. 14 March 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ Murray, Penelope (3 August 1998). "Obituary: K. W. Gransden". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022.
- ^ Fulton, Helen (2020). "Medieval Historical Writing: Britain and Ireland, 500–1500 ed. by Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner, and Elizabeth M. Tyler (review)". Studies in the Age of Chaucer. 42: 413–7. doi:10.1353/sac.2020.0024.
