Kenneth Setton

Kenneth Meyer Setton (June 17, 1914 in New Bedford, Massachusetts – February 18, 1995 in Princeton, New Jersey) was an American historian and an expert on the history of medieval Europe, particularly the Crusades.

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 in 1936 as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston University. He received his master's degree in 1938 and PhD in 1941 at Columbia University. His dissertation ''Christian Attitude Toward the Emperor in the Fourth Century'' was written under the direction of Lynn Thorndike. He also received honorary degrees from Boston University and the University of Kiel. He claimed that knowledge of languages is the basis of knowledge of historical science, and he spoke Italian, French, German and Catalan, besides his favorites, Latin and classical Greek.

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 of the Medieval Academy of America in 1980. He served as the editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades, published in six volumes from 1969–1989.

Setton received the John Frederick Lewis Prize of the Philosophical Society 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 between 1950 and 1965, succeeding another medievalist, . In the period between 1965 and 1968 he taught at the University of Wisconsin, where he was appointed director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities. After 1968 he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

He had many concurrent appointments, such as director of the library at the University of Pennsylvania, acting director of the Gennadius Library in Greece and Guggenheim Fellow.

Selected works

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* ''The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571'' (1976). Four volumes. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 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.
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* ''Catalan Domination of Athens, 1311–1388'' (1948). Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America. A history of the founding of the Catalan Company and their subsequent control of the Duchy of Athens and Thebes.
*''The Age of Chivalry'' (1969).Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer)., National Geographic Society (U.S.). (1969)
The Age of chivalry
ashington National Geographic Society.
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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