Marjorie Chibnall

Marjorie McCallum ChibnallOBEFBA(27 September 1915 – 23 June 2012) was an Englishhistorian,medievalistand Latin translator. She edited theHistoria EcclesiasticabyOrderic Vitalis,with whom she shared the same birthplace ofAtchamin Shropshire.

Marjorie Chibnall OBEFBA
Born	Marjorie McCallum Morgan (1915-09-27)27 September 1915 Atcham,Shropshire,England
Died	23 June 2012(2012-06-23)(aged 96) Sheffield,England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Spouse	Albert Chibnall
Scientific career
Fields	Medieval history
Institutions	Clare Hall,University of Cambridge,Girton College, Cambridge,University of Aberdeen
Thesis	The English priories and manors of the abbey of Bec-Hellouin(1942)
Doctoral advisor	Eileen Power
Other academic advisors	William Abel Pantin

Biography

Born into a farming family atAtchaminShropshirein 1915, Chibnall was educated at Shrewsbury Priory County Girls' School andLady Margaret Hall, Oxford,where she was taught byEvelyn Jamison,V. H. GalbraithandF. M. Powicke.

In 1947, she married the biochemist and amateur medieval historianAlbert Chibnall,who died in 1988.They had a son and a daughter.She died inSheffieldon 23 June 2012, at the age of 96.

Scholarly life

Marjorie Chibnall took herBLittat theUniversity of Cambridgeon the subject of ecclesiastical law, before moving on for her doctorate to a study of the relations between the mightyBec Abbeyin Normandy and its dependent English priories. She completed her doctorate in 1939 under the supervision of the economic historianEileen Power.Her early career was spent teaching at theUniversity of Southampton(1941–1943) and theUniversity of Aberdeen(1943–1947).

Chibnall was from 1947 a lecturer in history atGirton College, Cambridge,and from 1953 afellowof the college, but she relinquished her positions there in 1965 in order to complete her editorial work on theHistoria EcclesiasticaofOrderic Vitalis.Four years later she was made a research fellow and subsequently a fellow ofClare Hall, Cambridge,and anhonorary fellowof Girton College.

In a career spanning more than six decades, Marjorie Chibnall worked extensively on Anglo-Norman and Norman history. She encouraged much scholarship on these topics, as an active participant at the Battle Conferences on Anglo-Norman history and an editor of their proceedings. Chibnall's editions of the writings of Orderic Vitalis and of Atcham were acclaimed works, as was her biography of theEmpress Matilda.She continued to publish when she was well into her nineties. Her last book, a short account of the Normans, was published in 2000. She also edited five volumes ofAnglo-Norman Studies,the proceedings of the annual Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies.

Honours

Chibnall was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1978.In 1979, theUniversity of Birminghamgranted her an honorary doctorate. In 2004, she was awarded anOBEfor services to history.

The Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies established the Marjorie Chibnall Essay Prize. It is awarded to doctoral students or those within two years of completing their PhD for an unpublished paper to be presented at the conference and published in its proceedings.

Select bibliography

• Select Documents of the English lands of the Abbey of Bec,(Royal Historical Society, Camden Third Series vol. 73, 1951)
• John of Salisbury's Memoirs of the Papal Court,(London, 1956)
• (ed. & tr)The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis,6 vols., (Oxford, 1969–1980)
• Charters and Custumals of the Abbey of Holy Trinity, Caen(Oxford, 1982)
• The World of Orderic Vitalis,(Oxford, 1984)
• Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166,(Oxford, 1986)
• Editor and translator:The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury,(Oxford, 1986)
• Empress Matilda,(Oxford, 1991)
• (ed. with Leslie Watkiss)The Waltham Chronicle: An Account of the Discovery of Our Holy Cross at Montacute and its Conveyance to Waltham(Oxford, 1994)
• Editor and translator withR. H. C. Davis):The Gesta Guillelmi of William of Poitiers,(Oxford, 1998)
• The Debate on the Norman Conquest,(Manchester, 1999)
• Piety, Power and History in Medieval England and Normandy,(Aldershot, 2000)
• The Normans(Oxford, 2000)

External links

• A Memoir of Marjorie Chibnall by Diana E Greenway