Oral History Interview of Ralph Giesey, June 12, 1990

The following manuscript contains the edited transcript of an interview with Ralph E. Giesey (1923-2011), held at the Institute for Advanced Study on June 12, 1990. It was conducted by Patricia H. Labalme. Dr. Giesey was born in Detroit and received his PhD in 1954 at the University of California in Berkeley. He was a Fulbright fellow in Belgium in 1951-52 and an ACLS fellow in France in 1952-53 before coming to the Institute for Advanced Study as assistant to Professor Ernst Kantorowicz for 1953-55. He was a visiting member of the School of Historical Studies in 1964-65 and 1975-76 and a frequent summer visitor. Among his publications related to his residence at the Institute are The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France (1960); The Juristic Basis of Dynastic Right to the French Throne (1961); If Not, Not: the Oath of the Aragonese and the Legendary Laws of Sobrarbe (1968); Francogallia by Francois Hotman (ed., with J. H. M. Salmon, 1972); and Selected Studies by Ernst Kantorowicz (ed., with Michael Cherniavsky).