Nigel Fenton Palmer FBA (28 October 1946 – 8 May 2022) was a British

Germanist German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

and Professor Emeritus 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 ...

Career

Nigel F. Palmer went to Hyde Grammar School and then read Modern Languages at

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

where he graduated in 1969 with a first class degree after spending his year abroad in Vienna. In 1970 he took up a position as lecturer in German at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

. His DPhil thesis (1975) was on the German and Dutch versions of the

Visio Tnugdali The ''Visio Tnugdali'' ("Vision of Tnugdalus") is a 12th-century religious text reporting the otherworldly vision of the Irish knight Tnugdalus (later also called "Tundalus", "Tondolus" or in English translations, "Tundale", all deriving from the ...

. He was made a fellow of

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...

in 1976 and Professor of Medieval German Literature and Language from 1992 to 2012 at

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...

as successor to

Peter Ganz Peter Felix Ganz (3 November 1920 – 17 August 2006) was a German-born Germanist who emigrated to Britain in 1938, translated conversations of German nuclear scientists during Operation Epsilon in 1945, and became a professor at the University o ...

. He worked on a wide range of topics in mediaeval German language and literature, among them the ‘Literary topography of South West Germany in the later Middle Ages’, an attempt to establish a literary history of this region on the basis of the manuscript sources and library history (Latin and German). Other areas of special interest were

blockbooks Block books or blockbooks, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text (usually) and illustrations. The content ...

and their place in early printing history, the interface between Latin literature and German literature in the Middle Ages, and palaeography and codicology of the period 1100–1550. He was a member of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

since 1997. His work as editor of Oxford German Studies was featured in the celebratory volume 50/4. In 2022, he was awarded the inaugural Meister-Eckhart-Forschungspreis. OX-Tay-Nigel-Osterspiel

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * The catalogue of medieval and early modern textual witnesses of German and Latin the '15 Zeichen des Jüngsten Gerichts' ( 15 Signs Before Doomsday) is available via https://handschriftencensus.de/forschungsliteratur/pdf/4224 * * * A full list of publications to 2007 will be found in ''Bibelübersetzung und Heilsgeschichte''.

References

External links

University of Oxford Faculty Profile
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Obituary
(St Edmund Hall) {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Nigel F 1946 births 2022 deaths Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Germanic studies scholars People from Ashton-under-Lyne