Raymond Adrien Marie de Roover (1904–1972) was an economic historian of

medieval Europe In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

,Kathryn Reyerson, review of ''Bruges, Cradle of Capitalism, 1280-1390'', by James M. Murray, in ''Business History Review'', Winter 2006, Volume 80, Issue

whose scholarship explained why Scholasticism, Scholastic economic thought is best understood as a precursor of, and wholly compatible with, classical economic thought. In contrast, many mid-20th-century economic historians, such as R.H. Tawney, taught that

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

was the last and greatest of the Scholastic economists.David A. Martin, R. H. Tawney as Economist, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 829-853

Life

De Roover was born in Antwerp on 28 August 1904.Charles Verlinden, "Roover (Raymond-Adrien-Marie De)", in '' Biographie Nationale de Belgique''
vol. 40, (supplement 12)
(Brussels, 1977), 737-740. He studied commercial and financial science at the Higher Institute of Commerce Saint-Ignace (the origin of the University of Antwerp) and began working as a bookkeeper while spending his free time studying the history of bookkeeping. In 1928 he published a study of Jan Ympijn, who had written the first Flemish treatise on double-entry bookkeeping (published 1543). In 1929 he came across the accounts of the exchange merchants Colaert van Marke and Willem Ruweel in Bruges city archives, their records having been sequestered by the city at their bankruptcy in 1369. This led to a number of publications, including a 1937 article in ''

Annales d'histoire économique et sociale ''Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales'' is a French academic journal covering social history that was established in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. The journal gave rise to an approach to history known as the ''Annales'' School. The journ ...

''. In 1936 De Roover married the American historian Florence Edler, and emigrated to the United States. He studied for an MBA at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, graduating in 1938, and in 1943 obtained a doctorate in economics from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1940 he was naturalised as a US citizen. His early research had focused on the technicalities of banking and exchange in medieval Flanders. In the United States, he expanded his research to the history of the Medici Bank and to more abstract medieval economic thought. After graduating from Chicago, De Roover taught in turn at

Wells College Wells College is a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York. The college has cross-enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. For much of its history it was a women's college. Wells College is located in the Finger Lakes reg ...

Illinois University The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

, before his 1961 appointment at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

in the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. He was also a visiting lecturer at various European universities.''Journal of Markets & Morality'' Volume 10, Number 1 (Spring 2007): 1–3 Raymond de Roover’s Enduring Contribution to Economic History

/ref> and in 1949 a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

.John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
He became a fellow of the Koninklijke Academie van België and of the

Mediaeval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

. He died in Brooklyn on 18 March 1972. De Roover and his wife appear as minor characters in '' The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium'', a novel by the American novelist Harry Mathews that is in part concerned with the Medici.

Publications

* (1930). "Quelques considérations sur les livres de compte de Collard de Marke (1366-1369)", ''Bulletin de l'Institut supérieur de Commerce Saint-Ignace, 7, 445-475 * (1934). "Le livre de comptes de Guillaume Ruyelle, changeur à Bruges (1369)", ''Annales de la Société d'Emulation de Bruges'', 77, 5-95. * (1937). "Aux origines d'une technique intellectuelle: la formation et l'expansion de la comptabilité à partie double", ''

'' 9, 171-193, 270-298. * (1948). ''Money, Banking and Credit in Medieval Bruges''. Cambridge:

. Routledge, 2000. * (1948). ''The Medici Bank: its Organization, Management, Operations and Decline''.

New York University Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University. History NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown. Directors * Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–1932 ...

. * (1949). ''Gresham on Foreign Exchange; an Essay on Early English Mercantilism''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. * (1953). ''L'Évolution de la Lettre de Change: XIVe-XVIIIe Siècles''. Paris: Armand Colin. * (1958). "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy", ''

The Journal of Economic History ''The Journal of Economic History'' is an academic journal of economic history which has been published since 1941. Many of its articles are quantitative, often following the formal approaches that have been called cliometrics or the new economi ...

'' 18 (4), 418-434. * (1963). ''The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494''.

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

; W.W. Norton, 1966; Beard Books (August 1999), * (1968). ''The Bruges Money Market around 1400'', with a statistical supplement by Hyman Sardy. Brussels:

KVAB KVAB (102.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock format, licensed to Clarkston, Washington, United States. The station is owned by Pacific Empire Radio Corporation and features programming from Westwood One Westwood One is a ...

.Review
by Raymond van Uytven in '' Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire'', 47:1 (1969), pp. 144-148. * (1971). ''La Pensée Économique des Scolastiques: Doctrines et Méthodes''. Montréal: Institut d'Études Médiévales. * (1974). ''Business, Banking, and Economic Thought in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Selected Studies of Raymond de Roover''. University of Chicago Press.

Sources

External links

Works by Raymond de Roover
at Hathi Trust
Works by Raymond de Roover
at

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roover, Raymond De Economic historians 1972 deaths 1904 births 20th-century Dutch historians University of Antwerp alumni Harvard Business School alumni University of Chicago alumni Boston College faculty City University of New York faculty Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Brooklyn College faculty Dutch emigrants to the United States

Life

Publications

Sources

Further reading

External links