Robert Darnton awarded Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca

Robert Darnton, Harvard University Librarian and Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, was awarded the Prix Mondial Cino Del Duca by the Institut de France. The Prix Mondial is awarded each year to an author whose work “conveys a message of modern humanism.” The Institut de France noted it wanted to recognize Darnton for “his research on the history of books as well as his engagement in favor of open access to cultural material through the Internet.” Darnton will attend an award ceremony at the institute in June 2013.

Darnton joined Harvard in 2007 from Princeton University. He holds an A.B. from Harvard and a B.Phil and D.Phil from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. His publications include The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History and The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future. Darnton’s many awards include a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Medal of Humanities, and he is a chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. Darnton is a member of the Harvard Library Board, chair of the Harvard Library Faculty Advisory Council, a trustee of the New York Public Library and a member of the Digital Public Library of America board of directors.