David Abulafia
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David Abulafia FSA FRHistS FBA |
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Abulafia in 2010
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| Born |
David Samuel Harvard Abulafia 12 December 1949 Twickenham, Middlesex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Abulafia |
| Children | Two |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | J.H. Plumb |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Institutions | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Notable works | The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (2011) |
David Abulafia, FSA, FRHistS, FBA (born 12 December 1949) is an influential English historian with a particular interest in Italy, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He has been Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge since 2000 and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge since 1974; his current position in the college is that of Papathomas Professorial Fellow. He was Chairman of the History Faculty at Cambridge University, 2003-5, and was elected a member of the governing Council of Cambridge University in 2008.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europaea. In 2013 he was awarded one of three inaugural British Academy Medals for his work on Mediterranean history.
Abulafia was born at Twickenham, Middlesex, into a Sephardic Jewish family that left Spain for Galilee around 1492 and lived for many generations in Tiberias. He was educated at St. Paul's School and King's College, Cambridge.
He has published several books on Mediterranean history, beginning with his book The Two Italies in 1977; here he argued that as far back as the twelfth century northern Italy exploited the agricultural resources of the Italian south, and that this provided the essential basis for the further expansion of trade and industry in Tuscany, Genoa and Venice. He edited volume 5 of the New Cambridge Medieval History and the volume on Italy in the central Middle Ages in the Oxford Short History of Italy; he also edited an important collection of studies of the French invasion of Italy in 1494-5 as well as a book on The Mediterranean in History which has appeared in six languages. He has given lectures in many countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Finland, Norway, the United States, Japan, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.
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