Theory & History of HistoriographyCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Theory & History of Historiography
Croce, Benedetto
Historiography
here and there seeking a different 'order'--that is to say, really, a
better understanding--and we find (particularly from the thirteenth
century onward) the _ordo artificialis_ or internal opposed to the
_ordo naturalis_ or external chronological order. There are also
to be found those who distinguish between the _sub singulis annis
describere_ and the _sub stilo historico conglutinare_--that is to
say, the grouping together according to things described. The general
aspect of historiography changes not a little. Limiting ourselves
to Italian historiography alone, there are no longer little books
upon the miracles and the translations of the bodies of saints and
bishops, but chronicles of communes, all of them full of affection for
the feudal superiors or for the archbishop, for the imperial or the
anti-imperial side, for Milan or for Bergamo, or for Lodi. The sense
of tragedy, which weighed so heavily upon Erchempertus, returns with
new and stronger accents in the narrative of the deeds of Barbarossa
at Milan, entitled _Libellus tristititiæ et doloris, angustiæ et
tribulationis, passionum et tormentorum._ Love for one's city usurps
much of the space previously devoted to things celestial, and praises
of Milan, of Bergamo, of Venice, of Amalfi, of Naples, resound in the
pages of their chroniclers. Thus those vast chronicles are reached
which, although they begin with the Tower of Babel, yet lead to the
history of that city or of that event which makes the strongest appeal
to the feelings and best stimulates the industry of the writer, and
become mingled with the persons and things of the present or future
life. Giovanni Villani, a pilgrim to Rome to celebrate the papal
jubilee, is not inspired with the ascetic spirit or raised to heaven by
that solemn spectacle; but, on the contrary, "since he finds himself
in the holy city of Rome on that blessed pilgrimage, inspecting its
_great_ and _ancient possessions,_ and reading the _histories and the
great deeds_ of the Romans," he is inspired to compose the history of
his native Fiorenza, "daughter and creation of Rome" (of ancient Rome
prior to Christianity). His Fiorenza resembled Rome in its rise to
greatness and its following after great things, and was like Rome in
its fall. Thus the 'holy' and the 'blessed' do not lead him to holy
and blessed thoughts, but to thoughts of worldly greatness. To the
historiography of the communes answers the more seriously worldly, the
more formally and historically elaborated historiography of the Norman
and Suabian kingdom of Sicily. In the proem to its _Constitutiones_
sovereigns are declared to be instituted _ipsa rerum necessitate
cogente, nec minus divinæ provisionis instinctu_; with its Romualdo
Guarna, its Abbot Telesino, its Malaterra, its Hugo Falcando and Pietro
da Eboli, its Riccardo da San Germano, with the pseudo-Jamsilla, and
Saba Malaspina. All of these have their heroes, Roger and William the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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