Matthew Kempshall
British historian
Matthew Sean Kempshall (born 1964) is a British historian who specialises in the history of medieval intellectual thought. He is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in History, as well as Keeper of the Gardens, at Wadham College.
His main interests are in the 'reception of Aristotle's ethical and political ideas, on the connections between Ciceronian rhetoric and medieval historiography, on the ideology of medieval kingship, and on the understanding of classical republicanism by scholastic theologians and early renaissance humanists'. Most recently he has published Rhetoric and the Writing of History (Manchester 2011). According to WorldCat, the book is held in 196 libraries
Books
Kempshall, Matthew S. 1999. The common good in late medieval political thought. Oxford: Clarendon press. ISBN 9780198207160
Kempshall, M. S. 2011. Rhetoric and the writing of history, 400-1500. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Matthew Kempshall” is british historian. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Matthew, Kempshall and British, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british historian” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19661501. VIAF identifies the subject as 56773111. The Library of Congress control number is n98098332. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 2011, 1999 and 1500.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Matthew Kempshall”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Matthew Kempshall primary sources, Matthew Kempshall archive and Matthew research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Matthew Kempshall”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Matthew Kempshall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.