Law, Rulership, and Rhetoric: Selected Essays of Robert L. Benson

Robert L. Benson (1925–1996), professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, was one of the most learned and original medievalists of his generation. At his untimely death he left behind a considerable body of unpublished writings, many of which he had revised and refined and in some cases presented in lectures and at conferences over many years. The best and most significant of these previously unpublished writings are collected in this volume.

The essays in Law, Rulership, and Rhetoric span Benson’s entire career from 1955 to 1994. They comprise a rich collection covering a vast range of topics in political, intellectual, legal, and ecclesiastical history, rhetoric, and historiography. Art historians will find the three essays on medieval images of rulership and medieval art valuable, and literary scholars will be interested in the essays on, among others, Boncompagno da Signa. The volume concludes with several occasional, historiographical essays, including a spirited defense of Ernst Kantorowicz against Norman Cantor and an entertaining talk on “the medievalist as literary hero.” The volume begins with a brief biographical sketch and appreciation of Benson by Horst Fuhrmann.

Robert Louis Benson (1925-1996) was a professor in the department of history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Benson conducted undergraduate studies at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of the distinguished German Èmigré scholar, Ernst H. Kantorowicz. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. A scholar specializing in German history of the High Middle Ages, He took teaching positions at Barnard College, Wesleyan University, and the Free University of Berlin before accepting a position in 1974 with the UCLA Dept. of History. Benson taught at UCLA for the next twenty years, retiring in 1994. Soon after retiring, Benson accepted a teaching position at Yale University.

Loren J. Weber is a partner with O'Melveny & Myers LLP. He was previously lecturer of history at the University of California, Los Angeles.