Alastair J. Minnis, a Northern Irish literary critic and historian of ideas, has written extensively about medieval literature, and contributed substantially to the study of late-medieval theology and philosophy. Having gained a first-class B.A. degree at the Queen's University of Belfast, he matriculated at Keble College, Oxford, as a visiting graduate student, where he completed work on his Belfast Ph.D., having been mentored by M.B. Parkes and Beryl Smalley. Following appointments at the Queen's University of Belfast and Bristol University, he was appointed Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York; also Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies and later Head of English & Related Literature. From 2003 –2006 he was a Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University, Columbus, from where he moved to Yale University. In 2008 he was named Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale. He retired in 2018. Professor Minnis is a Fellow of the English Association, UK, a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. From 2012-14 he served as President of the New Chaucer Society. Currently he is Vice-President of the John Gower Society. He was General Editor of the Cambridge University Press series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature from 1987-2018, and holds an honorary master's degree from Yale and an honorary doctorate from the University of York. The University of York also bestowed on him the honorific title of Emeritus Professor of Medieval Literature. Major Books and Edited Collections Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity. 200 pages. Gower's Confessio amantis: Responses and Reassessments. 202 pages. Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages. Revised editions 1988, 2009. 323 pages. The Medieval Boethius: Studies in the Vernacular Translations of 'De Consolatione Philosophiae. 197 pages. , Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c.1100 c.1375: The Commentary Tradition. 538 pages. Revised ed. 1991. Latin and Vernacular: Studies in Late-Medieval Texts and Manuscripts, York Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings Series, 1. 190 pages. Chaucer's Shorter Poems. . 578 pages. , Essays on Ricardian Literature in Honour of J.A. Burrow. 358 pages. , Medieval Theology and the Natural Body, York Studies in Medieval Theology I. 244 pages. , Handling Sin: Confession in Late-Medieval Culture, York Studies in Medieval Theology II. 219 pages. , The Sources of Chaucer’s ‘Boece’. Magister Amoris: The ‘Roman de la Rose’ and Vernacular Hermeneutics. 352 pages. A Kindle edition was issued in 2011. , The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, vol. 2: The Middle Ages. 866 pages. , Text, Image, Interpretation: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature and its Insular Context in Honour of Éamonn Ó Carragáin. Fallible Authors: Chaucer’s Pardoner and Wife of Bath. Monograph of 520 pages. Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature: Valuing the Vernacular. Monograph of 272 pages. , Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition, c.1100–c.1500. A reference book of 748 pages. . Historians on Chaucer: The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. 503 pages. The Cambridge Introduction to Chaucer. conveys a continuing enjoyment and delight in reading and interpreting Chaucer's writings. By mixing the experience of a lengthy teaching career with the authority of his widely admired scholarship, Minnis encourages us to pause, observe, take stock, and share the wonders and conundrums of Chaucer's achievement. We are in the hands of an expert guide who knows his own mind ...'. Speculum] From Eden to Eternity: Creations of Paradise in the Later Middle Ages. A monograph of 392 pages with 32 color illus.. Contributions to Books ‘Unquiet Graves: Pearl and the Hope of Reunion’, in Truth and Tales: Cultural Mobility and Medieval Media, ed. Nicholas Watson & Fiona Somerset, pp. 117–34. ‘Discourse beyond death: The Language of Heaven in the Middle EnglishPearl’, in Language in Medieval Britain: Networks and Exchanges, ed. by Mary Carruthers, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 25, pp. 214–28. ‘Reconciling amour and yconomique: Evrart de Conty’s Ambition as Vernacular Commentator’, in Traduire au XIVe siècle : Evrart de Conty et la vie intellectuelle à la cour de Charles V, ed. by Joëlle Ducos and Michèle Goyens, pp. 199–222. ‘Other Worlds: Chaucer's Classicism’, in The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature, Volume 1: 800-1558, ed. by Rita Copeland, pp. 413–434. ‘Figuring the letter: Making sense of sensus litteralis in late-medieval Christian Exegesis’, in Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries, ed. Mordechai Z. Cohen and Adele Berlin, pp. 159–182. ‘The Prick of Conscience and the Imagination of Paradise’, in: Pursuing Middle English Manuscripts and their Texts. Essays in Honour of Ralph Hanna, edited by Simon Horobin and Aditi Nafde, pp. 127–40. Periodical Articles ' ‘Image Trouble in Vernacular Commentary: The Vacillations of Francesco da Barberino’, in Inventing a Path: Studies in Medieval Rhetoric in Honour of Mary Carruthers, ed. Laura Iseppi de Filippis; a special issue of Nottingham Medieval Studies, 56, 229-245. ‘Chaucer drinks what he brews: The House of Fame, 1873-82’, Notes and Queries, April 16. ‘The Restoration of All Things: John Bradford’s Refutation of Aquinas on Animal Resurrection’, The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 45.2, pp. 323–42. ‘Fragmentations of Medieval Religion: Thomas More, Chaucer, and the Volcano Lover’, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 37, pp. 3–27. ‘Aggressive Chaucer: Of dolls, drink and Dante’, The Medieval Translator, 16, 357-76. Edited by Pieter de Leemans and Michele Goyens.
