Valerie Irene Jane Flint (5 July 1936 – 7 January 2009) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 scholar and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, specialising in mediæval intellectual

Intellectual history

Note: this article concerns the discipline of intellectual history, and not its object, the whole span of human thought since the invention of writing. For clarifications about the latter topic, please consult the writings of the intellectual historians listed here and entries on individual...

 and cultural history

Cultural history

The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...

.

Early life

Flint was born in Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

. She studied at Rutland House School, before winning a scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 to read at Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. Focusing on the 12th century, Flint studied for an MPhil under Beryl Smalley

Beryl Smalley

Beryl Smalley was a British historian, best known for her work, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, originally published around 1940, but revised many times....

, Richard Southern

Richard Southern

Sir Richard William Southern , who published under the name R. W. Southern, was a noted English medieval historian, based at the University of Oxford.-Biography:...

, Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt may refer to:* Richard Hunt , Canadian carver and artist* Richard Hunt , one of the founders of Green Anarchist and Alternative Green* Richard Hunt , Canadian pianist and composer...

 and Lorenzo Minio-Paluello.

Academic career

After education, Flint took up lecturing and worked at the University of Auckland

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...

. In the late 1980s, Flint relocated to Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 as a Fellow of the Davis Center

Davis Center

Davis Center is a building in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, which features numerous shops and services. The Greensburg branch of the Pennsylvania Drivers License Center is located in the building. It was originally a Sears, Roebuck and Co., which was built in the early 1960s and closed after it...

. While working at the Institute for Advanced Study (also in Princeton), Flint completed her most extended and important publication, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. She also held fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

ships with the University of Canberra

University of Canberra

Over the years the Stone Day program has gradually become larger and larger, taking up a whole week and now Stonefest is one of Australia's most popular music festivals. The first foundation celebrations were held in 1971. In 1973 Stone Day celebrations were held over two days, which was expanded...

, Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...

, the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, the University of Minneapolis, Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, and All Souls, Oxford.

Later life and death

In 1999, while at Princeton as a Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Flint discovered that she was suffering from a virulent form of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. When her treatment enabled her to, she returned to Beverley

Beverley

Beverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley...

 in the East Riding of Yorkshire

East Riding of Yorkshire

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

. She centred her subsequent studies on the Hereford Mappa Mundi

Hereford Mappa Mundi

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a mappa mundi, of a form deriving from the T and O pattern, dating to ca. 1300. It is currently on display in Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England...

.

On 7 January 2009, Flint died at home in her library.

Personal life

Flint never married, and said that "marriage is for men". In the 1960s, she was accepted into the Catholic Church.

Works

• Imago Mundi (1982)
• Ideas in the Middle Ages (1988)
• The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (1991)
• The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (1992)
• Authors of the Middle Ages 6 (1995)