Henry Charles Lea

Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909) was an American publisher, civic activist, and historian from Philadelphia who became the dean of American medievalists. He pioneered scientific history in the United States, particularly through his groundbreaking research on the Inquisition, and authored monumental works including A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages and A History of the Inquisition of Spain. Though he received no formal education, Lea emerged as a world-class historian whose scholarly reputation exceeded that of any other American historian of his time among European scholars.