Cecil Grayson,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, FBA (5 February 1920 – 29 April 1998) was an English Italian studies scholar. He was the Serena Professor of Italian Studies at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1958 to 1987.

Life

Career

Born on 5 February 1920, Grayson came from a working-class family; his father, a

boilermaker A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US De ...

, died following an accident when Grayson was six years old, and his mother used her income as a

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Not ...

to pay for his and his brother Denis's education. He attended Batley Grammar School and

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; he served in the Army in the

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, rising to the rank of Major. Graduating in modern languages in 1947, he was appointed a university lecturer in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

the following year, and also held lectureships at St Edmund Hall and New College, Oxford. From 1958 to 1987, he was the Serena Professor of Italian Studies at Oxford and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford."Grayson, Prof. Cecil"
''

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'' (online ed.,

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, 2007). Retrieved 6 May 2021. He also held

visiting professorships In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

or fellowships at foreign universities, including

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, the

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UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

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, the

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and the

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. He served as president of the

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in 1987.

Martin McLaughlin Martin L. McLaughlin is Professor of Italian and Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian Studies in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford where he is a Fellow of Magdalen College."Cecil Grayson"
''

Renaissance Studies Renaissance studies (also ''Renaissance and Early Modern Studies'') is the interdisciplinary study of the Renaissance and early modern period. The field of study often incorporates knowledge from history, art history, literature, music, architectu ...

'', vol. 14, no. 1 (2000), p. 115.

Research

With Carlo Dionisotti, Grayson edited ''Early Italian Texts'' (1949) and, alone, he edited Leon Alberti's ''Opuscoli Inediti: Musca, Vita S. Potiti'' (1954). He edited Alberti's ''Opera Volgari'' (3 vols., 1960, 1966 and 1973), ''La Prima Grammatica della Lingua Volgare'' (1964), ''On Painting and Sculpture: The Latin Texts of De Pictura and De Statua'' (1972), ''De Pictura'' (1980) and ''On Painting'' (1988). His writings on Alberti were brought together in ''Studi su Leon Battista Alberti'' (1998). He translated Roberto Ridolfi's ''The Life of Girolamo Savonarola'' (1959), ''The Life of Niccolo Machiavelli'' (1963) and ''The Life of Francesco Guicciardini'' (1967). In 1964 his translation of

Francesco Guicciardini Francesco Guicciardini (; 6 March 1483 – 22 May 1540) was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance. In his masterpiece, ''Th ...

's ''History of Italy and History of Florence'' was printed; he edited Guicciardini's ''Selected Writings'' as translated by Margaret Grayson (1965). Alongside other articles and reviews, Grayson produced an edition of Vincenzo Calmeta's ''Prose e Lettere'' (1959), compiled ''Cinque Saggi su Dante'' (1972), and edited ''The World of Dante'' (1981) and ''The Renaissance: Essays in Interpretation'' (1982, co-edited with

André Chastel André Chastel (15 November 1912, Paris – 18 July 1990, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French art historian, author of an important work on the Italian Renaissance. He was a professor at the Collège de France, where he held the chair of art and civil ...

Denys Hay Denys Hay (29 August 1915 – 14 June 1994) was a British historian specialising in medieval and Renaissance Europe, and notable for demonstrating the influence of Italy on events in the rest of the continent. Life He was born in Newcastle-upo ...

and others). He received the International Galileo Prize in 1974, was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1979, and was appointed a

in 1992; he was the subject of two

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 ...

s: ''The Languages of Literature in Renaissance Italy'' (1987) and ''Dante and Governance'' (1997).Woodhouse (1999), p. 3. Grayson died on 29 April 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grayson, Cecil 1920 births 1998 deaths Italian literature Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy British expatriates in the United States British expatriates in South Africa British expatriates in Australia