The Mediaeval Academy: Evaluation and Revaluation

In a sense this appraisal might be a recognition of the quarter-centennial of mediaeval studies in America. Twenty-five years ago last December, in Baltimore, a group of congenial spirits sat around a long table for two or three hours and discussed the implications and the possibilities in the topic: ‘The Influence of Latin Culture on Mediaeval Literature.’ That was the informal beginning of what twenty-one years ago became the Mediaeval Academy of America. In the interval of those four years the interests of an increasing number of individuals broadened the range from mediaeval literature to every aspect of mediaeval civilization. Sixteen years of unbroken progress as an organized body were interrupted by a cataclysmic interval of five years. And the biennium which has passed since 1945 we can even now only call ‘frighted peace.’