Nicholas Orme



Nicholas Orme FSA FRHistS (born 1942) is a British historian specialising in the Middle Ages and Tudor period, focusing on the history of children, and ecclesiastical history, with a particular interest in South West England.

Orme is an emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and has worked as a visiting scholar at, among others, Merton College, Oxford, St John's College, Oxford, and the University of Arizona. He retired on 31 May 2007 and is a canon of the Church of England.

His 2021 book, Going to Church in Medieval England, was shortlisted for the 2022 Wolfson History Prize.

Orme was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1973 and of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1982.

Selected works

 * (1973) English Schools in the Middle Ages, Routledge, ISBN 0-416-16080-8
 * (1976) Education in the West of England, 1066–1548, University of Exeter Press, ISBN 0-85989-041-4
 * (1980) The Minor Clergy of Exeter Cathedral: 1300–1548 – a list of the minor officers, vicars choral, annuellars, secondaries and choristers. University of Exeter Press ISBN 0-85989-175-5
 * (1983) Early British Swimming, 55 B.C.–1719 A.D: with the first swimming treatise in English, 1595. University of Exeter Press ISBN 0-85989-134-8
 * (1984) From Childhood to Chivalry: Education of the English Kings and Aristocracy, Routledge, ISBN 0-416-74830-9
 * (1987) Exeter Cathedral as It Was, 1050–1550, Devon Books ISBN 0-86114-785-5
 * (1988) Education in Early Tudor England: Magdalen College Oxford and Its School, 1480–1540, Magdalen College
 * (1989) Education and Society in Mediaeval and Renaissance England, Hambledon Continuum, ISBN 1-85285-003-5
 * (1989) Table Manners for Children, by John Lydgate ; with translation and introduction by Nicholas Orme ISBN 0-907596-17-7
 * (1991) Unity and Variety: a History of the Church in Devon and Cornwall ISBN 0-85989-355-3
 * (1996) English Church Dedications: With a Survey of Cornwall and Devon, University of Exeter Press ISBN 0-85989-516-5
 * (2000) The Saints of Cornwall, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-820765-4
 * (2001) Medieval Children, New Haven: Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-08541-9
 * (2006) Medieval Schools: From Roman Britain to Tudor England, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-11102-9
 * (2006) School founders and patrons in England, 597–1560
 * (2007) Cornwall and the Cross. Chichester: Phillimore
 * (2007) The Victoria History of the County of Cornwall: Religious History to 1559 v. 2, ISBN 1-904356-12-5
 * (2009) Exeter Cathedral: The First Thousand Years, c. 400–1550, Impress Books, ISBN 978-0-9556239-8-1.
 * (2014) The Churches of Medieval Exeter, Impress Books, ISBN 9781907605512.
 * (2021) Going to Church in Medieval England, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300256505
 * (2023) Tudor Children, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300267969

Works as editor or collaborator

 * Nicholas Roscarrock's Lives of the Saints (1992); ISBN 0-901853-35-6
 * With Margaret Webster: (1995) The English Hospital, 1070–1570, Yale University Press; ISBN 0-300-06058-0
 * With David Lepine: (2003) Death and Memory in Medieval Exeter, Devon & Cornwall Record Society; ISBN 0-901853-46-1

For a more extensive list of Professor Orme's publications, see School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Exeter Website and the University Library Catalogue