Robert S. Lopez

Robert S. Lopez
Born	October 8, 1910 Genoa, Italy
Died	July 6, 1986(1986-07-06) (aged 75)
Education	University of Milan
Occupation	Medievalist

Roberto Sabatino Lopez (October 8, 1910 – July 6, 1986) was an Italian-born American historian of medieval European economic history. He taught for many years at Yale University as a Sterling Professor of History.

Early life and education

Roberto Sabatino Lopez was born in

Lopez married Claude-Anne Kirschen, a Jewish refugee from Belgium, in 1946. They had two sons, Michael and Lawrence, after moving to New Haven, Connecticut. The children were raised in the Jewish faith.^[1]

Academic career

In 1946, Lopez was hired as an assistant professor at Yale University. He rose through the academic ranks to full professor. He was honored by selection as a Sterling Professor of History, a recognition of his academic contributions. Lopez was one of the first Jews appointed at Yale University.^[1]

At Yale, in 1962 Lopez founded the interdisciplinary graduate program in Medieval Studies, and served as its chairman for many years. Originally a master's program, it awarded doctorates by 1965. When founded, it was the third such medieval studies program in the United States.^[2]

Lopez trained a number of distinguished medieval scholars, among them David Herlihy, Edward M. Peters,^[3] and Patrick J. Geary. Lopez retired from the Yale faculty in 1981 after 35 years at the university.

Lopez's main contributions to the field were in the history of trade and commerce in the medieval Mediterranean. He was particularly interested in showing the dynamism and creativity of medieval towns and economic networks. Other scholars had frequently compared them unfavorably to those of the Renaissance and early modern period.

In his best-known book, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1971, with numerous reprints), Lopez argued that the key contribution of the medieval period to European history was the creation of a commercial economy. He said it was first based in the Italo-Byzantine eastern Mediterranean, but eventually extended to the Italian city-states and through the rest of Europe. Lopez noted that it was the Renaissance period that was characterized by economic decline.^[4] Lopez's scholarship was underpinned by his expert knowledge of medieval agriculture, industry and especially coinage.

At the end of his career, Lopez maintained close ties to

Lopez died from cancer in 1986. His library and papers were acquired by Arizona State University.^[6]

Books

• Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (edited with Irving W. Raymond) (1955; 2nd ed. 1969)
• The Tenth Century: How Dark the Dark Ages? (1959)
• The Birth of Europe (1966)
• The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance (1970)
• The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1971)
• Byzantium and the World around It: Economic and Institutional Relations (1978)
• The Shape of Medieval Monetary History (1986)

Notes