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Obituaries (from SPBS Newsletter 2005) Sir Steven Runciman (1903-2000) St Andrews University Library is pleased to announce that the project to catalogue the library of the late Sir Steven Runciman has been successfully completed. Sir Steven, historian of the Crusades and specialist in Byzantine history, died in 2000, and bequeathed his important collection of books relating to Near and Middle East art, architecture, history and travel to St Andrews University. About 4,000 volumes have now been put into stock, and catalogue records for them added to the Library’s on-line catalogue, SAULCAT. James Cochran Stevenson Runciman was born in Northumberland on 7 July 1903. His parents were both Liberal MPs, the first married couple to sit together in the Commons. His father later became the first Viscount Runciman of Doxford. He was educated at Eton, where he was a King’s scholar, and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a first in history in 1924. He was also a gifted linguist, speaking French, Latin, Greek, Russian and Bulgarian. In 1924 he travelled to Istanbul in his grandfather’s yacht, and after more travel became a fellow of Trinity in 1927. While at Trinity he published three books: The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his reign (Cambridge, 1929), A History of the First Bulgarian Empire (London, 1930), and the seminal Byzantine Civilization (London, 1933). When he inherited a considerable fortune in 1938 he resigned the fellowship (although the College made him an honorary fellow in 1965). During the war Runciman acted as press attaché to the British legation in Sofia, and after the German invasion of Bulgaria in 1941, organized news broadcasts in Balkan languages at the British embassy in Cairo. From 1942 to 1945 he held his only professorial appointment, as Professor of Byzantine history and art in the University of Istanbul. He was head of the British Council in Greece 1945-47. He spent the rest of his life as a private scholar of Byzantine and Hellenic studies, raising the profile of Byzantine history through his cogent writings and lectures. In 1951 Runciman published the first volume of his authoritative History of the Crusades (3 volumes, Cambridge, 1951-54). Illuminated by thorough research into the Islamic sources, this lucid narrative refuted Gibbon’s portrayal of chivalrous crusaders defeated by barbarians. To Runciman, “the Holy War itself was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God” , and the crusaders were guilty of destroying the centre of medieval civilization in Constantinople. Runciman’s public life involved lecturing to international audiences, serving on councils or boards of many bodies ranging from the National Trusts for Scotland and Greece to the Victoria and Albert Museum; he was honorary president of the International Committee of Byzantine Studies and president of the Friends of Mount Athos. He was elected Member of the British Academy in 1957 and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1964; he was knighted in 1958 and made a Companion of Honour in 1984; and he received numerous other honours including the Greek Order of the Phoenix, the Bulgarian order of the Madara Horseman, and was an honorary whirling dervish. He continued to write on Byzantine history, but also published a history of Sarawak in The White Rajahs (Cambridge, 1960) and the autobiographical A Traveller’s Alphabet (London, 1991). He died on 1 November 2000. The collection reflects the diversity of Runciman's research interests. The main subject areas are the Byzantine Empire (history, literature and art), Balkan history and art, and the Crusades. There is an interesting collection of early travel literature relating to the Middle East and the Balkans. Other subjects include the Greek Orthodox Church, medieval art and architecture, and magic. As an art collector he also had a large selection of modern exhibition catalogues. Friends and colleagues presented him with books and copies of articles on a wide range of subjects not always related to his research, such as Frisian poetry and Elizabethan martyrs. The collection also reflects Runciman's wide linguistic abilities: only around half is written in English, with French, Greek, Bulgarian, Latin and German being the main other source languages, and there are materials in a wide variety of other languages from Italian and Romanian to Armenian and Arabic. Also included are a number of Runciman's own works in translation, and some periodicals relating to Byzantine and Balkan studies. While about 85% of the collection was published in the twentieth century there are a number of important early works, the earliest, the Epistolae magni Turci, printed in Rome by Stephan Plannck, being dated 1483. This is purportedly a translation of letters of Mehmet II, Sultan of Turkey, but is actually written by Laudivio de Vezzano. The collection also includes the sumptuously illustrated Aya Sofia, Constantinople, as recently restored by order of H.M. the Sultan Abdul-Medjid, from the original drawings by Chevalier Gaspard Fossati ; lithographed by Louis Haghe (London, 1852) and Sir David Wilkie’s Sketches in Turkey, Syria & Egypt; 1840 & 1841 drawn on stone by Joseph Nash (London, 1843). The collection has been catalogued to a high standard, with subject headings and provenance information as appropriate. The pre 1800 titles have index information about printers and publishers, and place of printing, and all records have an entry for Sir Steven himself, as former owner, allowing researchers to identify immediately all the books in the collection which belonged to him. The Library is grateful to the Pilgrim Trust for their support in carrying out this work. Click here to go straight to the entry in St Andrews University Library catalogue for Sir Steven Runciman’s books. More information about the Library, and general access to the catalogue, can be found through its web site at: Christine Gascoigne Obituaries from BBBS 2010: Obituaries from BBBS 2009: Obituaries from BBBS 2008: Obituaries from BBBS 2007: Obituaries from BBBS 2006: Obituaries from BBBS 2004: Obituaries from BBBS 2003: Obituaries from BBBS 2002: Obituaries from BBBS 2001: |