The Professorship of the Romance Languages is a statutory chair at the University of Oxford. The first courses in Romance languages were offered by Max Müller in the 1850s and the Selbourne Commission proposed the establishment of a Professorship of Romance or Neo-Latin Languages at Corpus Christi College in the 1870s. The college, however, was unwilling to fund it and so the university had to wait. An appeal for funds and a bequest by Cuthbert Shields allowed the Taylorian Professorship of the Romance Languages to be established in 1909. The first appointee was Hermann Oelsner, who had held the Taylorian lecturership at the university and was an expert in Old French. The "Taylorian" title was eventually dropped and the chair became associated with a fellowship at Trinity College in 1925.Martin Maiden, "About the Chair of the Romance Languages and its origins", Romance Linguistics at Oxford (University of Oxford). Retrieved 19 March 2021.
List of Professors of the Romance Languages 1909–1913: Hermann Oelsner 1913–1927: Paul Studer 1927–1930: Edwin George Ross Waters"Waters, Edwin George Ross", Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, 2007). Retrieved 19 March 2021. 1930–1958: Alfred Ewert, FBA 1958–1968: Thomas Bertram Wallace Reid"Professor T. B. W. Reid", The Times, 2 September 1981, p. 14. 1968–1976: Stephen Ullmann 1976–1977: Roy Harris 1978–1996: Rebecca Posner 1996–present: Martin David Maiden, FBA"Maiden, Prof. Martin David", Who's Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, 2007). Retrieved 19 March 2021.
References
Further reading Alan Deyermond, A Century of British Medieval Studies, British Academy Centenary Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2007).