Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology

The position of Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology (designated the Professor of Comparative Philology 1868–82 and 1925–2003, and known as the Corpus Christi Professor of Comparative Philology 1882–1925) is a professorship in comparative philology at the University of Oxford. The professor's duties are "to lecture and give instruction in Indo-European and the history and comparative philology of the Indo-European languages."^[1]

The professorship was created for the German academic Max Müller in 1868.^[2] It was called the "Corpus Christi" Professorship because a commission in 1877, led by Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne, recommended that the richest colleges should help the university by providing funds for chairs. Corpus Christi College was reluctant – partly because of the cost involved at a time when the college's income was affected by an agricultural recession, but also because the fellows of the college feared that they would be outvoted by professors.^[3] Although the chair was renamed as the Corpus Christi professorship in 1882 on the basis that provision had been made to endow the chair out of the college's revenues,^[4] the college never provided sufficient funds to establish a full endowment for the chair, and its obligation to do so (to the college's relief) was removed in 1925.^[3] The chair was renamed in 2003 after Professor A. Richard Diebold Jr., to mark his donation to the university to support the chair.^[5] It is now associated with a fellowship of Worcester College, although Anna Morpurgo Davies (appointed in 1971) was a fellow of Somerville College instead because at that time Worcester did not have women fellows.^[6]

The professors to have held the position are:

• Max Müller 1868–1900^[2]
  • Archibald Sayce was appointed as Deputy Professor 1876–90^[7]
  • Joseph Wright was appointed as Deputy Professor 1891–1901^[8]
• Joseph Wright 1901–25^[8][3]
• Gustav Braunholtz 1925–52^[9]
• Leonard Palmer 1952–71^[10]
• Anna Morpurgo Davies 1971–2004^[11]
• Andreas Willi 2005 onwards^[12]

References

1. "Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology" (PDF). University of Oxford. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
2. Fynes, R. C. C. (May 2007). "Müller, Friedrich Max (1823–1900)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 February 2015. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
3. Posner, Rebecca (1994). "Romance Linguistics in Oxford 1840–1940". In Christmann, Hans Helmut; Baum, Richard. Lingua et Traditio. Gunter Narr Verlag. pp. 377–378. ISBN 9783823341376.
4. "Corpus Christi Professor of Comparative Philology". Statuta Universitatis Oxoniensis. Clarendon Press. 1885. p. 64.
5. "Renaming the Professorship of Comparative Philology as the A. Richard Diebold Jr Professorship of Comparative Philology". Oxford University Gazette (University of Oxford). 8 May 2003. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
6. "College News" (PDF). Worcester College Magazine (Worcester College, Oxford): 5.
7. Gunn, Battiscombe; Gurney, O. R. (2004). "Sayce, Archibald Henry (1845–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 February 2015. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
8. Kellett, Arnold (2004). "Wright, Joseph (1855–1930)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 February 2015. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
9. "Braunholtz, Gustav Ernst Karl". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015. (subscription required)
10. "Palmer, Leonard Robert". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015. (subscription required)
11. "Anna Morpurgo Davies obituary". The Guardian. 9 October 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
12. "Appointments: Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology". Oxford University Gazette (University of Oxford). 22 April 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2015.