[{Image src='erasmus_ae.jpg' caption='' height='200' alt='' align='center'}]
%%center
!!Academia Europaea\\The Academy of Europe

__The Academia Europaea are pleased to award an Erasmus Medal to the internationally renowned intellectual historian
__
!!!Professor Quentin Skinner MAE

__''The Erasmus Medal of the Academia Europaea, is awarded to a European scholar who has maintained over a sustained period of time an outstanding level of international scholarship as recognised by peers. It is the highest recognition for purely scholarly achievements that the Academy can bestow on a scholar. The Medal is awarded at the Annual Conference of the Academy and on that occasion the recipient will also deliver the 2026 Erasmus Lecture.''__
\\ \\
[Professor Skinner|Member/Skinner_Quentin] MAE will receive the medal and will deliver the accompanying 
Academia Europaea-Heinz Nixdorf Erasmus Lecture at the annual conference of the __Academia Europaea__, Budapest, on __October 15th 2026__.
%%
\\ \\
[{Image src='Skinner_Quentin.jpg' caption='Professor Quentin Skinner MAE' height='190' alt='Quentin Skinner' align='center'}] 
\\ \\
----
!Erasmus Medal Citation

[Quentin Skinner|Member/Skinner_Quentin] MAE is a scholar of the highest calibre. Through his work from the 1960s up until the present, he has brought about a rethinking of the history of political thought. He has explored the nature of interpretation and historical explanation of key issues in political thought, including the concepts of political liberty, free states and free citizens as they developed in the early-modern period onwards.
\\ \\
His lasting legacy and continued inspiration for the historical and political sciences are indicative of the transformative influence on the social and human sciences that Quentin Skinner has exerted. In his lifelong career and in his scholarly achievements, he represents those virtues that our Academy has decided to honour in creating the Erasmus Medal.
\\ \\
Based on his outstanding scholarly achievements, his contributions to European scientific culture and his commitment to Academia Europaea as one of its earliest members (elected in 1989), the Academia Europaea is pleased and honoured to award the 2026 Academia Europaea Erasmus Medal to Professor Quentin Skinner.

!General biography

[https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/emeritus-academic-staff/profiles/skinnerquentin.html]\\
__Affiliation:__ [Queen Mary University of London|https://www.qmul.ac.uk]
\\ \\
----
!Short synopsis

Professor Quentin Skinner studied at the [University of Cambridge|https://www.cam.ac.uk] where he became a lecturer in 1965. He subsequently spent a sabbatical year at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton. He had the rare privilege of being invited to stay at the Institute and remained there until 1979. (At IAS, he was associated first with the School of Historical Studies and then with the School of Social Science.) In 1979, he returned to Cambridge and became Professor of Political Science, a position he held until 1996, when he was appointed to the post of Regius Professor of History (1996-2008). In 1999 he served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university. After his retirement at Cambridge, he became Professor at the University of London (Queen Mary) in 2008, where he is still Active as an Emeritus Professor (since 2022).
\\ \\
Quentin Skinner has held numerous visiting positions at leading scholarly institutions across the world, including Collège de France and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin but also EHESS in Paris and many universities, including Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Chicago, the Australian National University and Peking University.
\\ \\
Professor Skinner was a co-founder of the so-called Cambridge school in the study of political texts and the history of political and social thought that in the course of the last decades of the twentieth century transformed these fields of study on an international scale. This work involved a more methodologically rigorous form of analysis of the acts involved in the writing of political and social texts. 
\\ \\
This in turn allowed for new interpretations of how texts had emerged in different societal contexts and what meanings might be ascribed to them. This is visible already in the two path-breakings volumes The Foundations of Political Thought that appeared in 1978 (Volume I: The Renaissance; Volume II: The Age of Reformation). 
\\ \\
This was followed up with several works that highlighted key features in the thought of Machiavelli, e.g. in Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction (2000; second edition 2019), and of Hobbes, e.g. in Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (1996).
Among Skinner’s later works the magisterial trilogy Visions and Politics stands out with Volume I having the title Regarding Method, Volume II Renaissance Virtues and Volume III Hobbes and Civil Science. 
\\ \\
Apart from more than a dozen monographs, many of the translated to several languages, Professor Skinner has edited close to twenty books. Professor Skinners monographs and edited works have been translated to, as of now, 28 languages.
Furthermore, he has made important contributions as a key editor of influential book series, such as Ideas in Context and Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought.
\\ \\
Professor Skinner’s achievements have been recognised in terms of more than a dozen honorary doctorates at universities across the world. He has received a number Awards and Prizes. They include the Medal of the Collège de France (1997) and the Balzan Prize (2006).
\\ \\
He is a member of many academies and learned societies, including the British Academy (1981), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1986), the American Philosophical Society (1997), Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2007) and several others. Finally, he is a member of Academia Europaea since 1989.
\\ \\
----
\\
[{Image src='Wittrock_Bjoern.jpg' caption='' height='200' alt='' class='image_left'}]
!Laudator

[Professor Björn Wittrock|Member/Wittrock_Björn] MAE, Class Chair for Social Sciences of Academia Europaea, will give the laudation at the award ceremony. 
\\ \\
[Biography|http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Fellows/Permanent_Fellows/bjorn.html].
\\ \\
\\ \\
\\ \\
\\ \\
----
!Press enquiries to The Executive Secretary at AE HQ, Munich

''The Erasmus Medal is the highest Award that the Academia Europaea can bestow. It recognises an individual’s substantial life-long scholarly achievement. The prize carries no financial benefit and is open to nominations of candidates who are members and non-members. Non-members also receive the honour of immediate election to the Academy.”.
\\ \\
Information about the __Erasmus medal__ and a list of past winners can be found on our [website|Acad_Main/Activities/Awards_and_Prizes/Erasmus_Medal].
''
\\ \\
----
%%center
!!The Award is sponsored by the Heinz-Nixdorf Stiftung
\\
[{Image src='heinz_nixdorf.jpg' caption='' height='30' alt='' align='center'}]
%%
\\
1. Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung is - together with Stiftung Westfalen - one of the two non profit foundations, which have been established from the assets of the estate of the entrepreneur Heinz Nixdorf, who died in 1986. The foundation promotes the following purposes:
\\ \\
a) the (advanced) professional education, especially in the field of modern technology\\
b) the sciences in respect of research and teaching, especially in the field of information technology,\\
c) the liberal and democratic governmental system, especially the "Soziale Marktwirtschaft"\\
d) public health,\\
e) sports.
\\ \\
The foundation realizes its purposes primarily in cooperation with other non profit institutions.
\\ \\
Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung promotes among others the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn. This is a non profit istitution combining in a unique way the classic historic dimension of a museum with the current and future-oriented topics of a forum.
\\ \\
Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum is the largest computer museum of the world.
\\
!Further information about the Heinz-Nixdorf Stiftung can be found at [http://www.heinz-nixdorf-stiftung.de]
\\ \\
\\ \\
%%(text-align:right)
%%(font-size: 80%;)
Posted  11%%sup th/% August 2026 by Academia Europaea.\\
%%
%%