Oculus Memoriae. Nigel F. Palmer and His Contribution to Science

The article discusses the contribution of Nigel F. Palmer (1946–2022) to the development of historical German studies and the history of the book. Nigel Palmer, M. A., D. Phil., FBA, was an outstanding philologist, specialist in Medieval German and history of the book. He was Professor of Medieval German Literature and Language at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Dr. honoris causa of the University of Bern, editor-in-chief of the journals Oxford German Studies (from 1990 to 2016) and Medium Aevum (Oxford from 1990 to 2022), a member of the International Editorial Board of the Lomonosov Philology Journal (Series 9. Philology from 1990 to 2022). His research interests centred on the literary and manuscript tradition of the German Middle Ages, with a focus on religious literature and the history of the book. His works had a significant influence on the development of Medieval German studies at the present stage. Nigel Palmer was the author of many discoveries of medieval manuscripts. His efforts to clarify the origin of individual manuscripts and to reconstruct significant collections of medieval monastic libraries played an important role in the development of science. Nigel Palmer’s research on German medieval manuscripts and incunabula in Russian collections (the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, the Library of the Academy of Sciences, the Lomonosov Moscow State University Scientific Library, the “Museums of the Town of Yuryevets”) is of great scientific importance. The article reviews the main stages of Nigel Palmer’s academic biography and offers an overview of his most important publications, including Russian translations of his articles.