Anthony Grafton receives Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement

Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Emeritus, has received the 2025 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters (AASL). He is among 10 recipients of the prize, awarded at a Nov. 12 ceremony at Decatur House in Washington D.C.

“Through his outstanding scholarship on the history of scholarship, Anthony Grafton has held up a mirror of penetrating insight to the academic enterprise itself,” the academy said in its citation. “His groundbreaking work on the history of the classical humanist tradition, and the university’s methods of scholarly inquiry more generally, has invited scholars in every field to seek a deeper understanding of what we are doing when we engage in disciplined and systematic pursuit of truth.” 

The citation also spotlighted Grafton’s impact on the study and practice of the humanities. “The Academy honors Dr. Grafton’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s understanding of how the organized pursuit of knowledge has developed.”

“People I respect deeply have won this [award] in the past, and since, I’ve seen the list of who are winning it this year,” Grafton said. “It’s a real honor to be placed in the same list with Danielle Allen this year, William Jordan, my wonderful colleague, last year, Josh Ober and Robby George, the year before that.” 

Grafton has taught at Princeton for 50 years, spending his career studying the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, a period “when people became utterly convinced that they, and they alone, had the truth about Christianity, and anyone who disagreed with them was not just wrong but evil,” he said. Grafton said the award partly represents his goal of being a “peacemaker” in sharing ideas while respecting those who disagree.

“I feel as if my own world and the world I study in some way mirror each other,” Grafton said. “I guess I feel especially grateful because some of the people in the period I studied, who tried to be peacemakers, were more scorned than rewarded.”

The AASL, established in 2023, “promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. To these ends, the Academy awards 10 Barry Prizes each year, honoring scholars of extraordinary achievement and dedication to excellence in the arts, sciences and learned professions,” according to the press release.

Grafton joined Princeton’s history department in 1975 after earning his A.B. in 1971 and Ph.D. in 1975 in history from the University of Chicago. 

Grafton’s special interests lie in the cultural history of Renaissance Europe, the history of books and readers, the history of scholarship and education in the West from antiquity to the 19th century, and the history of science from antiquity to the Renaissance. He is currently engaged on studies of the Western historical tradition and of forgery in the Renaissance. 

In addition to authoring 10 books, Grafton is the coauthor, editor, coeditor or translator of nine others.

Grafton’s awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Balzan Prize for the History of the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Award. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the British Academy. In 2011, he served as president of the American Historical Association.

Winners of the Barry Prize receive a $50,000 cash award and become members of the academy.

The academy invested 65 members, including the 10 Barry Award winners and five term members (for early- to mid-career scholars of exceptional ability). Seven Princeton faculty were among those honored.

They are, as follows:

• Lara Buchak, professor of philosophy;
• Michael Cook, the Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus, and senior scholar;
• William Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Emeritus;
• Gene A. Jarrett, the William S. Tod Professor of English, and dean of the faculty;
• David MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry; and
• Howard Stone, the Neil A. Omenn ’68 University Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Honored as a term member:

• Flora Champy, associate professor of French and Italian.