In his memoirs Gibbon says that he's perfectly happy for people to criticise him as an infidel, but not on his scholarship. He has a changing attitude towards Christianity is very evident in the later volumes of Decline and Ford. I also think more generally there's a just a sense of a more multipolar history as he moves particularly into the Byzantine period of his history. His attention really locates itself on the variety of nomadic and peoples who transform that whole landscape. There's heavy irony in sarcasm in chapters 15 and it develops into something much more nuanced.
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.
With
David Womersley
The Thomas Wharton Professor of English Literature at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford
Charlotte Roberts
Lecturer in English at University College London
And
Karen O’Brien
Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson