Urban Tigner Holmes Jr. (July 13, 1900 – May 12, 1972) was an American scholar focusing on

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

and Romance

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. The son of Commander Urban T. Holmes,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, Holmes was born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

In 1916, he enrolled at the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is the sec ...

only to withdraw the following year for health reasons. In 1917, he began schooling at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where he studied

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, and

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

. After graduating with a Bachelors in 1920, Holmes continued his doctoral studies at Harvard and La Sorbonne. While at the Sorbonne, Holmes studied under scholars such as Joseph Bédier and Mario Roques. Holmes taught at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Missouri before settling down at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in 1925. By 1945, he was the Kenan Professor of Romance Philology. Urban T. Holmes was recognized both nationally and internationally for his scholarship. In 1950, he became a Chevalier de la

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. This was followed by becoming a Member of the Royal Archeological Institute (1961), a fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society (1961), a fellow of the

American Numismatic Society The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins, money, medals, tokens, and related objects. Founded in 1858, it is the only American museum devoted exclusively to their preservation ...

(1962), and a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (1967). Among his most renowned works are his ''History of Old French Literature'' (1937) and ''Daily Living in the Twelfth Century'' (1952). The publication of his work ''Chrétien, Troyes, and the Grail'' (1959, co-authored with Sister Amelia Klenke) introduced his very controversial Judeo-Christian

Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

theory. His son Urban T. Holmes III (1930–1981) was a prominent Episcopal priest, theologian, and academic during the twentieth century.

References

*Dean, Ruth J., Grace Frank, William Roach. "Memoirs of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Mediaeval Academy." ''Speculum'' 48:3 (1973), 624–625. 1900 births 1972 deaths American medievalists University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Paris alumni Harvard University alumni Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario University of Missouri faculty 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers American numismatists {{US-historian-stub