The Jesus Professorship of Celtic is a professorship in Celtic studies at the University of Oxford. The holder is also a Professorial Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. The chair was established in 1876, and the first professor was Sir John Rhys. Only four other people have held the position since then, the current holder (since 1997) being Thomas Charles-Edwards.

[edit] History

The reforms of Oxford University during the mid-nineteenth century provided the impetus for the establishment of a chair in Celtic. At the time that the Royal Commission was established in 1852, there were nineteen fellowships and eighteen scholarships at Jesus College. Seven of each were limited to those from north Wales, seven of each to south Wales and Monmouthshire. There were also exhibitions for students from Wales, with the Meyricke bequest making the north Wales exhibitions particularly valuable, despite the lower numbers of residents in north Wales as opposed to south Wales. The restrictions were "ruining the College as a place of education", since it took little effort for a Welsh boy to achieve a scholarship or exhibition despite the deficiencies in their education, and then many became Fellows of the college without obtaining anything more than a third or fourth class degree.^[1] The Commissioners appointed in 1852 to consider reforms of the university were known to favour abolishing local restrictions on fellowships and scholarships, such as those requiring the holder to be from a particular school or area. The college therefore proposed to the Commissioners in 1854 that the divisions between north and south Wales fellowships and scholarships should be removed, and that the number of fellows should be reduced by two in order to endow a Professor of Welsh.^[2]

The Commissioners, however, proposed that a fellowship should be devoted to the Laudian Professor of Arabic. The college objected, on the basis that a Celtic Professorship was more appropriate for the college given its Welsh connections, and the Commissioners conceded some ground, allowing the fellowship to be applied to such purposes as might be decided upon later.^[3] The college's proposal was later adopted, with the first Jesus Professor of Celtic, the distinguished Welsh scholar Sir John Rhys, being elected in 1876.

It is the oldest chair in the Modern Languages Faculty at Oxford and is still the only chair in Celtic at an English university.^[4]

The Professor also controls access to the Celtic Library at Jesus College, a specialist collection for researchers.

[edit] List of Jesus Professors of Celtic

• Sir John Rhys : 1877–1915
• John Fraser : 1921–1945
• Sir Idris Foster : 1947–1978
• D Ellis Evans : 1978–1996
• Thomas Charles-Edwards : 1997 to date

[edit] References

General references

• Baker, J. N. L. (1971). Jesus College, Oxford 1571–1971. London: Oxonian Press Ltd. ISBN 0950216402.  Cited in references as: Baker
• Hardy, E. G. (1899). Jesus College. London: F. E. Robinson & Co. http://www.archive.org/details/jesuscollege00hardrich.  Cited in references as: Hardy

Specific references

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