Edward Gibbon

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of one of the great historians, best known for his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published 1776-89). According to Gibbon (1737-94) , the idea for this work came to him on 15th of October 1764 as he sat musing amidst the ruins of Rome, while barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter. Decline and Fall covers thirteen centuries and is an enormous intellectual undertaking and, on publication, it became a phenomenal success across Europe. The image above is of Edward Gibbon by Henry Walton, oil on mahogany panel, 1773.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• David Womersley 2 episodes
  The Thomas Wharton Professor of English Literature at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford
• Charlotte Roberts No other episodes
  Lecturer in English at University College London
• Karen O'Brien 16 episodes
  Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford

Reading list

• Gibbon
  J. W. Burrow (Oxford University Press, 1985) Google Books →
• The Cambridge Companion to Edward Gibbon
  Karen O'Brien and Brian Young (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• Barbarism and Religion
  J. G. A. Pocock (Cambridge University Press, 1999-2015) Google Books →
• Edward Gibbon: Making History
  Roy Porter (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988) Google Books →
• Edward Gibbon and the Shape of History
  Charlotte Roberts (Oxford University Press, 2014) Google Books →
• The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790
  Ritchie Robertson (Allen Lane, 2020) Google Books →
• The Transformation of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
  David Womersley (Cambridge University Press, 1988) Google Books →
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
  Edward Gibbon (ed. David Womersley) (Penguin, 1994) Google Books →
• The Death of the Moth and Other Essays
  Virginia Woolf (Martino Fine Books, first published 1942; Martino Fine Books, 2014) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Roman Empire’s Collapse in the 5th century
  
  18 Mar, 2004 930 History of the Ancient World
• Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
  
  10 Jul, 2008 930 History of the Ancient World
• Decline and Fall
  
  21 Feb, 2013 820 English and Old English literatures
• Byzantium
  
  19 Jul, 2001 940 History of Europe
• Galen
  
  10 Oct, 2013 610 Medicine and health
• The 12th Century Renaissance
  
  20 Oct, 2016 900 History
• Ibn Khaldun
  
  4 Feb, 2010 900 History
• Edmund Burke
  
  3 Jun, 2010 320 Political science
• Roman Slavery
  
  5 Apr, 2018 930 History of the Ancient World
• Vitruvius and De Architectura
  
  15 Mar, 2012 720 Architecture
• Justinian’s Legal Code
  
  17 Nov, 2016 340 Law
• Montaigne
  
  25 Apr, 2013 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Hegel’s Philosophy of History
  
  26 May, 2022 900 History
• Cicero
  
  25 Jan, 2018 930 History of the Ancient World
• Marcus Aurelius
  
  25 Feb, 2021 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy
• Pliny’s Natural History
  
  8 Jul, 2010 500 Science
• Hannibal
  
  11 Oct, 2012 930 History of the Ancient World
• Slavery and Empire
  
  17 Oct, 2002 900 History
• The City - a history, part 1
  
  25 Mar, 2010 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• The Pelagian Controversy
  
  21 Apr, 2011 270 History of Christianity

---

Programme ID: m000x0v2

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x0v2

Auto-category: 900 (History and geography)