Emeritus Professor Peter Ainsworth

Telephone: (0114) 222 2883

email: p.f.ainsworth@sheffield.ac.uk

Peter Ainsworth

Qualifications

BA Hons, First Class, French Studies (University of Manchester), MA (University of Manchester), Doctorat du 3ème Cycle (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris-III)

Biography

After two years at the Université de Bourgogne (Dijon), I joined the University of Manchester in 1972 as a Lecturer, later becoming Senior Lecturer and Head of Department. In 1996 I went to a Chair of French at the University of Liverpool where I was Director of the Humanities Graduate School and Head of French and of the School of Modern Languages. In January 2001 I came to my Chair at Sheffield. Between 2003 and 2005 I was Director of Research for the Arts and Humanities. In September 2007 I was appointed Head of French. On 1st November 2009 I become Emeritus Professor of French, upon my retirement from the University.

I hold the title Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Académiques (awarded by the French prime minister for services to French culture) and am a member of the Société de l´Histoire de France and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Research activities

My research focuses on medieval French historiography, especially the Chronicles of Jean Froissart (c. 1337-c. 1404). I am also interested in the application of e-Science methodologies (digitisation and various forms of Grid and internet dissemination) to the study of medieval manuscripts and edited texts. I have recently been invited by the Chief Executive Officer of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to demonstrate software developed by me and Michael Meredith - Virtual Vellum - at an international review of e-Science at Oxford (Dec 2009). I am PI on the Online Froissart Project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Professional activities

  • Member of the AHRC Peer Review College
  • I have served on the Executive Committees of both the Universities Council for Modern Languages and the Association of Professors and Heads of French
  • Advisory Board, Reading Online Medieval Studies
  • Editorial Committee, Advisory Board and Publications Committee, International Medieval Chronicle Society
  • Comité de publication et de patronage, Nouvelle Bibliothèque du Moyen Age, Editions Honoré Champion, Paris
  • Advisory Board, Liverpool Online Series

Current and recent research projects

  • The Online Froissart Project (interactive electronic edition of a 14th-century chronicle, for the Art and Humanities Research Council)
  • Joint initiative involving the Online Froissart, Queen's Manuscript (Christine de Pizan) project, University of Edinburgh, and the "ATILF" Laboratory, Dictionnaire du Moyen Français project, University of Nancy 2, funded by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and the British Academy (links the Online Froissart and Christine de Pizan resources to the Online Dictionary of Middle French)
  • Virtual Vellum, a manuscript viewing tool for laptop, PC or online and grid use (AHRC/EPSRC/JISC e-Science Demonstrator)
  • Pegasus, online exhibitions and the grid (EPSRC and National Science Foundation of America, pilot and demonstrator)
  • Guest Curator, national exhibition, Royal Armouries Museum (Dec 2007-April 2008), and related events at the Alcazar, Ceccano, Inguimbertine and Méjanes Libraries (Marseilles, Avignon, Carpentras and Aix-en-Provence), 2008
  • Curator, Exhibition on Jean Froissart and the Hundred Years' War, Musée de l'Armée, Hôtel des Invalides (Paris), with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, March-June 2010

Publications since 2001

  • Jean Froissart, Chroniques, Troisième Livre. MS 865 de la Bibliothèque Municipale de Besançon, ed. Peter Ainsworth, tome 1, Editions Droz, “Textes Littéraires Français” (Geneva, 2007)
  • Affective Communication in Design. Challenges for Researchers. Proceedings of a conference organised by The White Rose University Consortium, Leeds, UK June 21-22 2007, Taylor & Francis, CoDesign vol 3, supplement 1 ( 2007), 1-2, Guest Editors Tom Childs, Chris Rust, Peter Wright, Peter Ainsworth, Jim Nobbs. 210 p
  • Patrons, Authors and Workshops. Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, ed. G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth, Peeters, “Synthema” 4 (Louvain – Paris- Dudley MA, 2006)
  • ‘Froissart et « ses » manuscrits: textes, images, codex et ressources électroniques’, Froissart dans sa forge, colloque réuni à Paris, du 4 au 6 novembre 2004 par M. Michel ZINK, membre de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Collège de France–Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Diffusion De Boccard (Paris, 2006), 213-230
  • ‘Rois, reines et capitaines: échos de parti pris dans quelques manuscrits des Chroniques de Froissart’, Actes du colloque international "Jehan Froissart" (Lille 3 - Valenciennes, 30 sept. - 1er oct. 2004), édités par Marie-Madeleine Castellani et Jean-Charles Herbin, Société de Langues et et Littératures Médiévales d’Oc et d’Oïl, Perspectives Médiévales, Supplément au n°30, mars 2006 (Paris, 2006), 9-51
  • ‘Representing Royalty: Kings, Queens and Captains in Some Early Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts of Froissart’s Chroniques’, The Medieval Chronicle IV, Editions Rodopi (Amsterdam/Atlanta, 2006), 1-38
  • ‘Conscience littéraire de l’histoire au Moyen Âge’, in M. Zink et F. Lestringant (eds), Histoire de la France Littéraire, 3 vols; tome I: “Naissances, Renaissances,” Presses Universitaires de France, « Quadrige » (Paris, 2006), 349-419
  • ‘Arthurian Nostalgia: Jean Froissart’s Meliador’, in Ch. XII (ed. Jane H.M. Taylor): “Late Medieval Arthurian Literature” of The Arthur of the French, The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature, ed. G.S. Burgess & K. Pratt, University of Wales Press, “Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages” IV (Cardiff, 2006), 490-494
  • ‘État présent. Jean Froissart: A Sexcentenary Reappraisal’, French Studies LIX, 3 (2005), 364-72
  • Jean Froissart, Chroniques, vol. II (Books III & IV), ed. Peter Ainsworth & Alberto Varvaro, Hachette, Le Livre de Poche, coll. « Lettres Gothiques » (Paris, 2004). 1022 p.
  • Jean Froissart, Chroniques, vol. I (Books I & II), ed. Peter Ainsworth & George Diller, Hachette, Le Livre de Poche, coll. « Lettres Gothiques » (Paris, 2001). 1246 pp.
  • ‘Contemporary and “Eyewitness” History’, Chapter VIII of D.M. Deliyannis (ed.), Historiography in the Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 249-276
  • ‘Legendary History: Historia and Fabula’, Chapter XII of D.M. Deliyannis (ed.), Historiography in the Middle Ages (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2003), 387-416

Full list of publications

Postgraduate supervision

Thesis topics that I have supervised include:

  • A study and edition of Jean Froissart's Chroniques Book IV, based on British Library MS Harley 4379-4380
  • A study and edition of Jean Froissart's Chroniques Book I, based on Besançon Public Library MS 864
  • A 17th-century ornithological treatise by Faultrier (jointly with Animal and Plant Sciences, and History)

Teaching interests

During my teaching career I taught undergraduate language courses at all levels; my specialist modules included "Reading French Poetry" and "Perceptions of Women in the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance". I also contributed to taught postgraduate courses (Medieval French Language, Literature, and Research Skills for the Medievalist).

See also