Matthew Sean Kempshall (born 1964) is a British historian who specialises in the history of medieval intellectual thought. He is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in History, as well as Keeper of the Gardens, at Wadham College.

His main interests are in the 'reception of Aristotle's ethical and political ideas, on the connections between Ciceronian rhetoric and medieval historiography, on the ideology of medieval kingship, and on the understanding of classical republicanism by scholastic theologians and early renaissance humanists'. Most recently he has published Rhetoric and the Writing of History (Manchester 2011). According to WorldCat, the book is held in 196 libraries

Books

  • Kempshall, Matthew S. 1999. The common good in late medieval political thought. Oxford: Clarendon press. ISBN 9780198207160
  • Kempshall, M. S. 2011. Rhetoric and the writing of history, 400-1500. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719070303
  • McGrade, A.S., John Kilcullen, and Matthew Kempshall. 2001. (co-editors)The Cambridge translations of medieval philosophical texts. Vol. 2, Ethics and political philosophy. Cambridge, UK [etc.]: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521280822