Jean-Claude Hocquet (1936) is a university professor who has taught at universities in Paris, Venice and Lille, and has given lectures at foreign universities and international conferences. Professor and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research and School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris), he is the author of a thesis, 40 books, many of which have been translated, and numerous articles on Venice, whose archives and libraries he has frequented since 1958. A specialist in the history of salt, maritime trade and taxation, and the history of weights and measures, he is a scientific advisor to several international journals. He is now retired from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and lives in Lille.