Which university appointed C.S. Lewis its first professor of Medieval and Renaissance English in 1954?

The University of Cambridge appointed C.S. Lewis its first professor of Medieval and Renaissance English in 1954.

Lewis took up the Cambridge chair in 1954 after nearly thirty years teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford. The professorship was newly established, and its title reflected Lewis’s scholarly specialization in English literature from the medieval and Renaissance periods. He became a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, rather than Magdalen College, Oxford.

The similar names of the two colleges cause frequent confusion. Lewis’s Oxford fellowship was at Magdalen College, while his Cambridge fellowship was at Magdalene College, spelled with an extra “e.” He continued writing and lecturing after moving to Cambridge, although his public reputation increasingly rested on Christian apologetics and imaginative fiction as well as academic work. Lewis held the Cambridge chair until his retirement in 1963.