Henry Charles Lea, the Inquisition, and the Origins of Scientific History in the United States

Henry C. Lea (1825–1909), a Philadelphia-based historian helped to pioneer, especially in the United States, the practice of ‘scientific’ history with particular reference to that of Inquisition, that of Spain in particular. He obsessively acquired books, manuscripts, and copies of thousands of documents housed in European archives and libraries together with others in South America.  His groundbreaking writings on the subject fostered better understanding of the history of an institution whose aims and methods troubled Lea and remain the subject of heated debate.

Speaker’s biography

Richard L. Kagan, Arthur O. Lovejoy Professor Emeritus of History and Academy Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of The Inquisition’s Inquisitor: Henry Charles Lea of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024), the first biography of Lea since 1931. He is the author of several books, including Lucrecia’s Dreams: Politics and Prophecy in Sixteenth-Century Spain (University of California Press, 1990), Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793 (Yale University Press, 2000), Clio & the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), and The Spanish Craze: America’s Fascination with the Hispanic World, 1779-1939 (University of Nebraska Press, 2019)