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  • Book Talk

The Inquisition’s Inquisitor: Henry Charles Lea of Philadelphia

Join us to celebrate the publication of the first comprehensive biography of Henry Charles Lea, whose library, including the physical space, and papers reside in the Kislak Center.

Registration is required for guests outside of the Penn community and encouraged for all participants.

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December 3, 2024, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
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Kislak Center Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
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Open to the Public

Hosted by: Kislak Center

Richard L. Kagan, The Inquisition's Inquisitor, Henry Charles Lea of Philadelphia. Book cover image shows a portrait of a man with white hair and beard, and a painting of an inquisition scene with several figures wearing robes, some with pointed hats, seated around a table

Join us to celebrate the publication of The Inquisition's Inquisitor (University of Pennsylvania Press, October 2024), the first biography since 1931 of Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909). A Philadelphia publisher and civic reformer, Lea was America’s most distinguished historian of medieval and early modern Europe, focusing on the Inquisition and ecclesiastical history. Lea's library, including the physical space, and papers reside in the Kislak Center. 

His biographer, Richard L. Kagan, will also address Lea’s role as philanthropist, political activist, and property owner, who is probably best known to locals today for the elementary school named after him.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History.

About the speaker

Richard L. Kagan is the Arthur O. Lovejoy Professor Emeritus of History at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught from 1972 until his retirement. In addition to The Inquisitions’ Inquisitor, he is the author of many other publications, including Clio and the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain (2009), Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793 (2000), and Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (1974). He edited, with Philip D. Morgan, Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500–1800 (2008) and translated and edited, with Abigail Dyer, Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics (2004/2011). Kagan is a member of the American Philosophical Society.