Presidential Address
In Memoriam
From Perspectives, April 1985
Frederic C. Lane (November 23, 1900–October 14, 1984), president of the AHA in 1964, died at his home near Westminster, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1984. Lane, educated at Cornell and Harvard and for 38 years associated with The Johns Hopkins University before his retirement in 1966, was a leading economic historian of medieval and Renaissance Venice, known for his studies of the Arsenal (translated into French) and of Andrea Barbarigo (translated into Italian), for his general history of Venice (translated into Italian and German, with a French translation forthcoming), and for his numerous articles, many of which were collected into a book on his retirement. His vigorous scholarly industry lasted up to his death, at which time he was preparing the index to what will perhaps be his most notable contributions to medieval economic history, Coins and Moneys of Account (to be published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in the spring of 1985), the first of a two-volume study, Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, co-authored with his former student, Reinhold C. Mueller, of the University of Venice. Besides his role in this association, Lane was also a president of the Economic History Association in 1958 and of the International Economic History Association in 1965. His numerous honors included, after his retirement, an honorary degree from Michigan State University, the dedication of a special issue of The Economic History Journal (1980) on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, and two prestigious prizes in Italy—the 1980 International Galileo Prize, awarded annually to a foreigner for outstanding contributions to the study of Italian culture and history; and the 1984 International Prize of the Francesco Saverio Nitti Foundation, awarded by economists (in this instance to an economic historian) through the Academia Nazionale dei Lincei. A bibliography of his work appeared in the 1966 volume of collected studies, and this was updated in the 1980 issue of The Journal of Economic History dedicated to him. A complete bibliography will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Italian journal, Ateneo veneto.—Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Johns Hopkins University
Bibliography
Venetian ships and shipbuilders of the Renaissance, by Frederic Chapin Lane. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1934; Reprint, Johns Hopkins pbks. ed. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Andrea Barbarigo, merchant of Venice, 1418 1449, by Frederic C. Lane. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1944; Reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1967.
The world’s history: New York, Chicago: Harcourt, Brace and company, 1947.
Ships for victory; a history of shipbuilding under the United States Maritime Commission in World War II, by Frederic C. Lane, with the collaboration of Blanche D. Coll [and others] Charts by Joseph T. Reynolds. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1951; Reprint, with a new preface by Arthur Donovan. Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Venice and history; the collected papers of Frederic C. Lane, edited by a committee of colleagues and former students. Foreword by Fernand Braudel. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1966.
Venice, a maritime republic, by Frederic C. Lane. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
Profits from power: readings in protection rent and violence-controlling enterprises, by Frederic C. Lane. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1979.
Money and banking in medieval and Renaissance Venice: coins and moneys of account, by Frederic C. Lane, Reinhold C. Mueller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.