Kenneth Setton
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Kenneth Meyer Setton (June 17, 1914 in
New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
– February 18, 1995 in
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
) was an American
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 race; as well as the stu ...
and an expert on the history of
medieval Europe In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, particularly the
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
.


Early life, education and awards

Setton's childhood and adolescence were not easy. He supported himself from the age of 13. Setton received his
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in 1936 as a
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
graduate of
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
. He received his
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in 1938 and PhD in 1941 at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. His dissertation ''Christian Attitude Toward the Emperor in the Fourth Century'' was written under the direction of
Lynn Thorndike Lynn Thorndike (24 July 1882, in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA – 28 December 1965, Columbia University Club, New York City) was an American historian of medieval science and alchemy. He was the son of a clergyman, Edward R. Thorndike, and the younge ...
. He also received
honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
s from Boston University and the
University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...
. He claimed that knowledge of languages is the basis of knowledge of historical science, and he spoke
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 ...
, French,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
, besides his favorites,
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
. Kenneth Setton spent nearly two decades finishing his classic work, the four-volume ''The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571''. For the first two published volumes he received the
Haskins Medal The Haskins Medal is an annual medal awarded by the Medieval Academy of America. It is awarded for the production of a distinguished book in the field of medieval studies. Award The Haskins Medal is awarded by a committee of three; a chairman, and ...
of the
Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...
in 1980. He served as the editor-in-chief of the
Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades The Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades was a six-volume set on the Crusades through the 16th century, published from 1969 to 1989. The work was a major collaborative effort under the general editorship of American medieval historian Ke ...
, published in six volumes from 1969–1989. Setton received the John Frederick Lewis Prize of the
Philosophical Society The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
three times: first in 1957 for his work ''The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance'', then in 1984 for his work ''The Papacy and the Levant, volume 3 and 4'' and in 1990 for his work ''Venice, Austria and the Turks in the 17th Century''.


Career

Setton began his teaching career at Boston University and the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
between 1950 and 1965, succeeding another medievalist, . In the period between 1965 and 1968 he taught at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, where he was appointed director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities. After 1968 he worked at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
in
Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
. He had many concurrent appointments, such as director of the library at the University of Pennsylvania, acting director of the
Gennadius Library The Gennadius Library ( el, Γεννάδειος Βιβλιοθήκη), also known as the Gennadeion, is one of the most important libraries in Greece, with over 110,000 volumes on Greek history, literature and art from Antiquity until modern tim ...
in Greece and
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
.


Selected works

* * * ''The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571'' (1976). Four volumes. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society.
ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition and ...
978-0-87169-114-9. * ''A History of the Crusades'' (1969–1989). Six volumes. University of Wisconsin Press, 1955–1989, as editor in chief with Harry W. Hazard, Robert Lee Wolff, Marshall W. Baldwin and Norman P. Zacour as co-editors. This series is known as the
Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades The Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades was a six-volume set on the Crusades through the 16th century, published from 1969 to 1989. The work was a major collaborative effort under the general editorship of American medieval historian Ke ...
. * * * ''Catalan Domination of Athens, 1311–1388'' (1948). Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America. A history of the founding of the
Catalan Company The Catalan Company or the Great Catalan Company (Spanish: ''Compañía Catalana'', Catalan: ''Gran Companyia Catalana'', Latin: ''Exercitus francorum'', ''Societas exercitus catalanorum'', ''Societas cathalanorum'', ''Magna Societas Catalanorum' ...
and their subsequent control of the
Duchy of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of the ...
and Thebes. *''The Age of Chivalry'' (1969).Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer)., National Geographic Society (U.S.). (1969)
The Age of chivalry
ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...
National Geographic Society.
* *


References


External links


Almanac of University of Pennsylvania containing information about appointment of Kenneth Setton as professor of Medieval History

Almanac of University of Pennsylvania containing information about Setton being awarded with John Frederick Lewis Prize in 1957

Short biography on Historians web site

Short biography at Jstor website

The Alfred E. Hamill Letters to Kenneth Meyer Setton
a
Newberry LibraryA History of the Crusades
University of Wisconsin Press, 1969–1989.
Saint George's head
article in Speculum, a journal of Medieval Studies, January 1973 {{DEFAULTSORT:Setton, Kenneth 1914 births 1995 deaths American medievalists Historians of the Crusades Slavists Institute for Advanced Study faculty 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers People from New Bedford, Massachusetts Boston University faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Historians from Massachusetts 20th-century American male writers