Call Number:

C1236

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Stephen Runciman Letters to Jeffrey Schaire, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1983-1991 (inclusive)

Creator:

Runciman, Steven, 1903-2000

Form:

Letters -- 20th century. and Manuscripts, English -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists of letters by British medieval historian and Byzantine art scholar Stephen Runciman to his friend Jeffrey Schaire, editor of Arts and Antiques magazine.

Sir Stephen Runciman was an eminent British medievalist. Born in Northumberland, England, he showed a talent for learning languages at an early age. He was a King's Scholar at Eton College, where he became a close friend of George Orwell. In 1921, he entered Trinity College (Cambridge) as a history scholar and earned a fellowship there in 1927 for his work on the Byzantine Empire. After receiving a large inheritance from his grandfather in 1938, Runciman resigned his position at Trinity and began travelling widely. From 1942 to 1945 he was Professor of Byzantine Art and History at Istanbul University, in Turkey, where he began the research on the Crusades which would lead to his best known work, The History of the Crusades (3 vols., 1951-1953). He was knighted in 1958. Runciman died in Radway, Warwickshire, on November 1, 2000.

The collection contains 60 typed and holograph letters and postcards by Runciman, with corrected typescripts of two of his articles, addressed to Jeffrey Schaire, friend and editor of Arts and Antiques magazine. The articles deal with "The Painted Churches of Moldavia" (9 pp.) and "Byzantine Art and Western Taste" (17 pp.). Accompanying the letters are some photographs, including one of "Elshieshields" (1983), Runciman's home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and several of Schaire from his visits with Runciman.

The letters are arranged chronologically, followed by the two mansucripts.