WEDNESDay 1 july 2015 • SuPPlEMENT (1) TO NO 5102 • VOl 145 Gazette Supplement Encaenia 2015 Congregation 24 June inimicis pro virili parte contendit: ita cum greatest power and eminence; instead, his David quidam perversus non monstrum books dealt with cholera, poverty and capital 1 Conferment of Honorary Degrees necare sed eos qui monstruosa illius punishment, and they were written with so The Public Orator made the following tyrannidis scelera ostenderant supprimere sharp a pen that even the experts admitted speeches in presenting the recipients of conaretur, errores eius manifestos reddidit, that they were now seeing the German past Honorary Degrees at the Encaenia held in in foro quinque dies luctatus est, victoriam with new eyes. But while educating the the Sheldonian Theatre on Wednesday, haud dubiam reportavit. libellum quoque learned, he did not neglect a wider public: 24 june: ad historiam defendendam edidit, sane turning his attention from the nineteenth to eloquentem et sapientia refertum; quam the twentieth century, he wrote an account Degree of Doctor of Letters tamen exemplum omnibus eius scriptis of the Third Reich, in which, as Catullus’ PROFESSOR SIR RICHARD EVANS praebitum forsitan vel melius approbet. friend Cornelius Nepos did in his study of Italy, he dared to write Historian Praesento rerum Germanicarum Qui dicunt doctos turres eburneas habitare, investigatorem indefessum, Ricardum Three volumes’ worth of history: credere solent eos de laboribus atque Iohannem Evans, equitem auratum, What learning, gosh, what industry. academiae Britannicae socium, apud aerumnis hominum parvum vel nihil Great is the mass of evidence, the tale grim, universitatem Cantabrigiensem quondam scire; at si revera sedem editam et sapientia but he leads the reader through the labyrinth historiae Professorem Regium et adhuc munitam occupant, immensitatem campi with a sure step. His tale is of wickedness Collegii Wolfsoniani Praesidem, ut multis locis vastatam et cadaveribus and folly, with touches of mockery (if one admittatur honoris causa ad gradum sparsam despectant. Sic honorandorum may be allowed to smile about such dreadful Doctoris in litteris. hodie agmen ducit vir qui licet lucos things). He has not only sought the truth academiae colat atrocia scelera et dolorem Admission by the Chancellor but struggled manfully against its enemies: fere infinitum contueri non recusavit.u bi when a perverse David was trying not to Rerum gestarum explicator tenax sagax primum studio rerum Germanicarum quo slay a monster but to gag those who set forth strenue, qui in loca tenebricosissima tempore regnabant Caesares incumbebat, the monstrous crimes of that tyranny, he penetravisti, ego auctoritate mea et totius non ut plerique de eis scripsit qui maxima exposed the man’s errors, wrestled with him universitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris dignitate et potestate fruebantur; nam through five days of cross-examination in in litteris honoris causa. libros de peste de pauperibus de poena court, and won a decisive victory. He has also capitali exaravit, calamo tam acuto usus ut Paraphrase published a short book In Defence of History, vel doctissimi faterentur se res Germanicas but wise and persuasive though it is, one Those who say that professors live in an tamquam novis oculis iam videre. at dum may feel that the best defence comes from ivory tower are in the habit of thinking that eruditos instruit, non neglegit vulgus: the example that his own work has set. intentione enim ab undevicesimo saeculo they know little or nothing about the toils ad vicesimum conversa, de Tertio illo and troubles of ordinary people; but if they I present Sir Richard john Evans, FBa, Imperio ausus est ut Cornelius Nepos, do indeed dwell in a high place, secured by Regius Professor of History emeritus and Catulli amicus, de rebus Italorum wisdom, the reality is that they look down now President of Wolfson College in the from it upon an immense area much of university of Cambridge, to be admitted to omne aevum tribus explicare cartis which is ravaged and strewn with corpses. the honorary degree of Doctor of letters. doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis. and thus the line of honorands today is led Admission by the Chancellor Magna est materiei moles, tristis narratio; by a man who, though he may haunt the tamen lectorem per labyrinthum certis groves of the academy, has been willing Shrewd, tenacious and vigorous interpreter vestigiis ducit. Flagitia ostendit atque to fix his gaze upon appalling crimes and of the past, who have travelled to the darkest ineptias, et si de rebus tam diris ridere well nigh limitless suffering. When he first places, on my own authority and that of licet, aliquando risum movet. Non solum settled to the study of German history in the the whole university I admit you to the veritatem quaesivit sed etiam cum veritatis Wilhelmine era, he did not, as many have honorary degree of Doctor of letters. done, write about those who enjoyed the 665 666 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5102 • 1 july 2015 DAME HILARY MANTEL passes them by. It is less common to come cum sint universitates, oportet eas Author upon a writer whose works, like those of bene gubernari; quamobrem nos iuvat the lady whom I now introduce, receive the feminam hodie honestare quam hac arte Sunt inter fabularum commenticiarum admiration of general readers and reviewers praestitisse constat. Coloni filia, in agro scriptores qui exemplaribus fere innumeris alike. She is born in Derbyshire, schooled Texano nata, primum in louisiana tum venditis lucrum magnum sibi parent, in Cheshire, and studies law in yorkshire; Cantabrigiae Massachusettsensium in tamen a litteratis respuantur. alii palmis et then she becomes a teacher and social universitate Harvardiana educata est. cultiorum plausu celebrantur; quos neglegit worker; she lives for a number of years in litterarum Francogallicarum professor vulgus. Rarius fabulatorem invenire possis africa and arabia. No wonder then that her facta, iam iuvenis rerum administrationis cuius opera, ut huius feminae nunc a me books display great variety: now she passes peritiam haud parvam exhibebat; itaque productae, simul et populus cognoscit et along the streets of jedda, now she occupies non mirum eam in anno Xl aetatis suae admirantur litterarum existimatores. In a women’s hostel in london with other praesidem Collegii Smithiani creatam comitatu Derbensi nascitur, in Cestrensi students, now she speeds across the sea and esse. Scholam ingeniariae, id quod nullo in educatur, in Eboracensi iurisprudentiae with A Change of Climate roams through the collegio puellis educandis constituto antea studet; tum fit curatrix socialis et puerorum tangle of an impoverished South african exstiterat, ibi condidit. Tum Providentiam magistra; annos non paucos africam township. She is a time traveller too, visiting translata, prima hominum a stirpe africana et arabiam incolit. Haud igitur mirum not only distant nations but also epochs exortorum electa est quae universitati ex magnam varietatem in libris eius exsistere: remote from our own; she writes a big iis quae hederosae vocantur praesideret. modo per plateas Ieddae vagatur, modo work, for example, about men and women Credit veritatem semper consectandam londini in deversorio cum puellis litterarum seeking A Place of Greater Safety amid the esse, etiamsi pudorem afferat; itaque studiosis habitat, modo trans mare currit disturbances of the French Revolution. quaestionem de opibus universitatis et caelo mutato in africa australi per and who does not know that she makes her haberi iussit ad iudicandum quantum e compita vici cuiusdam inopis pererrat. Non way into Wolf Hall and manages to Bring lucro mangonico fluxisset. Simul ea duce solum ad longinquas nationes sed etiam Up the Bodies? It is very hard to put words arcae novis opibus maxime auctae sunt, ad aetates a nostra remotas peregrinatur; into the mouths of people from an earlier novaeque societates cum externis gentibus exempli gratia, de hominibus locum age without either sounding affected or iunctae; quare per eam magna parte stat ut securiorem quaerentibus dum civitas conveying too much of a modern flavour – motus Browniani semper in altiora tendant. Francogallorum novis rebus et seditione one might as well try to speechify about perturbatur magnum scribit volumen. Et Praesento ducem fortem sagacem contemporary matters in classical latin – quis nescit eam in aulam luporum penetrare providam, Ruth Iohannam Simmons, but she carries off the trick with amazing et corpora ex obscuritate sublevare? academiae americanae artium et aplomb. There is little need for me to praise Perdifficile est orationem hominibus Scientiarum Sociam, universitatis her imaginative power; let us rather praise antiquis attribuere quae nec sit putida nec Brownianae quondam Praesidem et that combination of artistry and research nimis saecula recentiora sapiat; facilius de adhuc rerum africanarum professorem, which has enabled her to represent an rebus nostri temporis sermone Ciceroniano ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum era long gone with such accuracy. One of contionareris. Quod tamen haec mira Doctoris in litteris. our own most distinguished historians peritia efficit.φαντασʹιαν eius vix opus observes, ‘This is the Tudor England that I Admission by the Chancellor est ut laudem; laudemus potius artem et recognise.’ and we laymen too recognise a doctrinam qua aetatem diu praeteritam Discentium et doctorum gubernatrix consummate master of her craft. accuratissime repraesentat.