Francis Romeril Maddison (27 July 1927 – 12 July 2006) was an English historian and Arabist. He was

Curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the

Museum of the History of Science The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, England, holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from Middle Ages to the 19th century. The museum building is also known as the Old Ashmolean Building to distinguish it from th ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Francis Maddison was born in

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. He was educated at Hounslow College and

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, where he initially studied Modern Languages and then changed to Modern History. Maddison was President of the Oxford University Archaeological Society. He collaborated with R. J. C. Atkinson, who supervised him when he directed archaeological excavations at

Cricklade Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227. History Cricklade ...

and Dorchester in Oxfordshire. In 1949, Maddison was a member of the British School at Rome expedition to

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Originally a 7th-centuryBC Phoenician foundation, it was great ...

Tripolitana Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

(now

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, northern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

). He then became an assistant archivist, first at Glamorgan County Record Office, followed by

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

. He became assistant curator at the Museum of the History of Science at the encouragement of the head curator,

C. H. Josten Conrad Hermann Hubertus Maria Apollinaris JostenIan Lowe ''The Independent'', 12 July 1994. (7 June 1912 in Neuss, Germany – 10 July 1994 in Neuss), known as Kurt Josten or C. H. Josten, was a historian of science and Curator of the Museum of t ...

. Maddison's expertise in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, initially learnt under the tutelage of his father, was reinforced through the museum's extensive collection of Arabic-Islamic astrolabes. He also has research interests in the history of

horology Horology (; related to Latin '; ; , interfix ''-o-'', and suffix ''-logy''), . is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic clo ...

time measurement Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to c ...

, and early sea

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

. He was promoted to Curator in 1964 on the retirement of C. H. Josten and held the post for thirty years until his own retirement in 1994. In 1965, he was made a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Linacre College, Oxford Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students. Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its me ...

, becoming an Emeritus Fellow in 1994. He was the second president of the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science, founded in 1987 by Jean Gimpel. In 1978, Maddison was elected a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

. In 1983, he was elected to the

International Academy of the History of Science The International Academy of the History of Science (french: Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences) is a membership organization for historians of science. The academy was founded on 17 August 1928 at the Congress of Historical Science b ...

. On his retirement in 1994 he was presented with a festschrift containing essays by 20 eminent academics from the disciplines of linguistics and the history of science. Contributors included J. W. Allan (Oxford), Giles Barber (Oxford), Silvio Bedini (Washington), John Bergsagel (Copenhagen), John North (Groningen), Brian Scott (Belfast), Charles Dowsett (Oxford).W. D. Hackmann and A. J. Turner (eds.), ''Learning, Language and Invention — Essays Presented to Francis Maddison''. Variorum and the Société Internationale de l'Astrolabe, 1994. Maddison's first wife was Audrey Kent (died 2004), with whom he had a daughter and a son. He had another son with his second wife, Patricia Brown.

Works

* F. R. Maddison, ''A Supplement to a Catalogue of Scientific Instruments in the Collection of J. A. Billmeir Esq C.B.E. Exhibited by the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford''. Frank Partridge & Sons, 1957. * F. R. Maddison, Margaret Pelling, Charles Webster (ed.), ''Essays on the Life and Work of Thomas Linacre c. 1460-1524''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1977. * E. Savage-Smith, F. R. Maddison, et al., ''Science, Tools & Magic''. Oxford University Press, 1997. Two volumes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maddison, Francis 1927 births 2006 deaths People from Hounslow Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford English archaeologists English curators Historians of science Technology in the medieval Islamic world Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford Directors of museums in the United Kingdom Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 20th-century English historians