Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the life and work of Ernst Kantorowicz (1895–1963). Kantorowicz is considered one of the most influential of all medieval historians, if not the most influential. His book The King's Two Bodies has been kept in print by Princeton University Press since its first appearance in 1957. The steady sales and numerous translations reflect the fact that Kantorowicz's book has had extraordinary resonance in several disciplines: not only in history but in art history, literary criticism, and political thought. After the Nazis took power, Kantorowicz courageously spoke against them as a full professor from the lecture platform to an overflowing crowd in Frankfurt in November 1933. In 1938 he barely escaped Kristallnacht and fled first to England and then the United States, where in the fall of 1939 he took a one-year position at Berkeley.