Summary
Antonia Gransden (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 edit
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 edit
- A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257-1301. Simon of Luton and John of Northwold (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2015)
- (ed.) The Letter-Book of William of Hoo: Sacrist of Bury St Edmunds, 1280–1294 (Ipswich: Suffolk Records Society, 1963)
- (ed. & trans.) The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds 1212–1301 (London; Edinburgh: Nelson, 1964)
- (ed.) The Customary of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk: (from Harleian MS. 1005 in the British Museum) (Henry Bradshaw Society, 1973)
- Historical Writing in England, c.550 to c.1307 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974)
- Historical Writing in England, c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982)
- Legends, Traditions, and History in Medieval England (London: Hambledon Press, 1992)
References edit
- ^ 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.