Author - David Abulafia

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Featured • Slavery

Was Leonardo da Vinci’s mother a slave?

22/03/2023

by David Abulafia

There is great excitement in Italy, which has spilled over into the British press: Carlo Vecce, a...

Events • Featured

Captain Cook’s Aboriginal spears belong in Cambridge, not...

07/03/2023

by David Abulafia

On the eve of the First World War, Trinity College, Cambridge deposited four spears collected by...

Ukraine

Ukraine, Odessa and The Black Sea

27/04/2022

by David Abulafia

Few may have noticed Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s innocent gaffe when he introduced Volodomyr Zelensky to...

Institutions • Featured

Decolonizing Imperial College: a few suggestions

30/10/2021

by David Abulafia

Activists at Imperial College are targeting Darwin’s colleague TH Huxley. They want to rename the...

People • Featured

Columbus: a misguided genius

11/10/2021

by David Abulafia

Like so many of the figures who were not long ago commemorated with enthusiasm but are now...

David Abulafia

David Samuel Harvard Abulafia CBE FSA FRHistS FBA (born 12 December 1949) is an English historian with a particular interest in Italy, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He spent most of his career at the University of Cambridge, rising to become a professor at the age of 50. He retired in 2017 as Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History. He is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[2] 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 visiting Beacon Professor at the new University of Gibraltar, where he also serves on the Academic Board. He is a visiting professor at the College of Europe (Natolin branch, Poland).

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. In 2020, he was awarded the Wolfson History Prize for The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans