What was C.S. Lewis’s Cambridge professorship called when he moved there in 1954?

C.S. Lewis held the Cambridge chair of Medieval and Renaissance English after moving from Oxford in 1954. He became the first holder of the newly established professorship at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The appointment recognized his expertise in English literature from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Lewis had previously taught at Oxford’s Magdalen College for nearly three decades, but he was not elected to an Oxford professorship during that period.

His Cambridge position allowed him to continue literary scholarship while also writing fiction and works about Christianity. The chair’s title is sometimes shortened in casual references, but “Medieval and Renaissance English” identifies the professorship precisely.

Lewis remained at Cambridge until his retirement in 1963. His academic reputation rested on scholarship as well as popular books, and works such as The Allegory of Love and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century reflect the historical range named by the chair.