Charles W. Jones was a medievalist scholar

Medieval studies

-Development:The term 'medieval studies' began to be adopted by academics in the opening decades of the twentieth century, initially in the titles of books like G. G. Coulton's Ten Medieval Studies , to emphasize a greater interdisciplinary approach to a historical subject...

 who served on the faculties of Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 and the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

. He is noted for his work on Bede

Bede

Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

, the development of the ecclesiastical calendar, medieval hagiography

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

, and Carolingian aesthetics

Carolingian Renaissance

In the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...

. At his death a major work titled The Age of the Book: Christian Foundations of Western Literature was left unfinished.

Jones contributed to the third volume of the monumental The Plan of St. Gall (1979) by Walter Horn

Walter Horn

Walter W. Horn was a medievalist scholar noted for his work on the timber vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages. He was born in Germany, but fled Nazism and spent most of his academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the university system's first art historian...

 and Ernest Born

Ernest Born

Ernest Born was an architect and artist who lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area.Born studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating from the school of Architecture in 1922 and earning a masters degree in 1923.Born designed signage for the Bay Area Rapid...

, translating the 9th-century Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 text Customs of Corbie

Corbie Abbey

Corbie Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Corbie, Picardy, France, dedicated to Saint Peter.-Foundation:It was founded in about 659/661 under Merovingian royal patronage by Balthild, widow of Clovis II, and her son Clotaire III...

(Consuetudines Corbienses) of Adalhard, and two other documents. The Consuetudines consist of Adalhard's managerial directives to the heads of the departments in his monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

. They are significant for outlining in prose the objectives illustrated graphically by the architectural drawing

Architectural drawing

An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building that falls within the definition of architecture...

 that is the subject of the book. The difficulty of the translation is indicated by the number of footnotes, which occupy twice as much space as the text itself. Horn and Born noted that Jones “accomplished this gruesome task without the slightest loss of enthusiasm!”

Jones is best known outside scholarly circles for his work on the legend of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...

 and the Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

 tradition, having written the article

Academic publishing

Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...

 “Knickerbocker Santa Claus” (1954), the monograph

Monograph

A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...

The Saint Nicholas Liturgy and its Literary Relationships (1963), and the book Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan (1978).

Source

• University of California (System) Academic Senate, "Charles W. Jones, English: Berkeley," Calisphere.