What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1954 Cambridge academic chair?

C.S. Lewis’s 1954 Cambridge academic chair was Medieval and Renaissance English.

In 1954, Lewis left Oxford for Cambridge University after being elected to the newly established chair of Medieval and Renaissance English. He held the position at Magdalene College, Cambridge, until his death in 1963. The appointment recognized his scholarship in medieval and Renaissance literature as well as his reputation as a teacher and critic.

Lewis’s academic work included studies of medieval allegory, courtly love, and literary history. His 1936 book The Allegory of Love examined medieval and Renaissance treatments of love and helped establish his scholarly standing. His critical writing continued alongside his fiction, apologetics, and devotional works.

The chair’s title is sometimes shortened in biographies to “Medieval and Renaissance Literature,” but the formal Cambridge title was Medieval and Renaissance English. Lewis’s move to Cambridge also marked a major institutional change, not merely a new title at Oxford.