Which university awarded C.S. Lewis the first chair of Medieval and Renaissance English literature?

The University of Cambridge awarded C.S. Lewis the first chair of Medieval and Renaissance English literature.

In 1954, Lewis left Oxford for Cambridge after being appointed the first holder of the newly created chair of Medieval and Renaissance English. He taught at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and held the professorship until his retirement in 1963.

The appointment reflected Lewis’s standing as a literary historian as well as a popular Christian writer and novelist. His scholarship covered medieval and Renaissance literature, and his teaching and criticism helped make older works accessible to modern readers. His book The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, had already established his academic reputation.

Lewis’s move is often confused with his long association with Oxford. He taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, but Cambridge was the university that created and awarded the chair specifically associated with Medieval and Renaissance English literature.