What was the name of C.S. Lewis’s university chair at Cambridge, which he first held in 1954?

C.S. Lewis first held Cambridge’s chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in 1954. The appointment brought him from Oxford to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he continued teaching and writing until his retirement.

The chair reflected Lewis’s scholarly specialization in medieval and Renaissance texts. His academic work included studies of English literature, allegory, medieval cosmology, and the intellectual world surrounding writers such as John Milton. His book The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, had already established him as a major literary scholar.

Lewis had spent nearly three decades teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford, before moving to Cambridge. The Cambridge post was especially notable because he was its first holder, making the position directly associated with his name from its beginning.

Readers often remember Lewis primarily as a novelist or Christian apologist, but this professorship shows his formal academic standing. His Cambridge work continued the medieval and Renaissance focus that ran through much of his literary scholarship.