Herlihy, David

David Joseph Herlihy (May 8, 1930 – February 21, 1991) was an American historian who served as the president of the American Historical Association. He wrote on medieval and renaissance life, and was married to fellow historian Patricia Herlihy. His study of the Florentine and Pistoiese Catasto of 1427 is one of the first statistical surveys to use computers to analyze large amounts of data. The resulting book examines statistical patterns in tax-collecting surveys to find indications of social trends. The University of San Francisco history department named their annual award for the best student-written history paper the David Herlihy Prize, and Brown University has established a David Herlihy University Professorship.