What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s chair at Cambridge University, founded in 1954?

C.S. Lewis held the Cambridge chair of Medieval and Renaissance English, founded in 1954.

In 1954 Lewis left Oxford for Magdalene College, Cambridge, after being appointed the first holder of the newly established chair of Medieval and Renaissance English. The position matched his scholarly interests in medieval literature, Renaissance writing, and the history of English literary culture.

Lewis had built his academic reputation as a literary historian and critic before becoming famous as a Christian author. His important scholarly works include The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, published in 1954. The Cambridge appointment recognized that specialist expertise.

The chair is sometimes described loosely as a position in theology because Lewis wrote extensively about Christianity. Its formal subject was English literature, specifically the medieval and Renaissance periods. Lewis held the Cambridge post until his death in 1963.