Theory & History of HistoriographyCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Theory & History of Historiography
Croce, Benedetto
Historiography
but did so with disdain and contempt, calling them 'anti-methodical.'
This pseudo-scientific haughtiness diffused itself from Germany over
the other European countries, and has now reached America, though in
other countries than Germany it met more frequently with irreverent
spirits, who laughed at it. Then for the first time there manifested
itself that mode of historiography which I have termed 'philological'
or 'erudite' history. That is to say, the more or less judicious
compilations of sources which used to be called _Antiquitates, Annales,
Penus, Thesauri,_ presented themselves disguised as histories, which
alone were dignified and scientific. The faith of these historians
was reposed in a narrative of which every word could be supported by
a text, and there was nothing else whatever in their work, save what
was contained in the texts, torn from their contexts and repeated
without being thought by the philologist narrator. Their object
was that their histories should reach the rank of comprehensive
compilations, starting from those relating to particular times,
regions, and events, and finally attaining to the arrangement of the
whole of historical knowledge in great encyclopædias, out of which
articles are to be supplied, systematic or definitional, put together
by groups of specialists, directed by a specialist, for classical,
romantic, Germanic, Indo-European, and Semitic philology. With a view
to alleviating the aridity of their labours, the philologists sometimes
allowed themselves a little ornament in the shape of emotional
affections and ideal view-points. With this purpose, they had recourse
to memories of their student days, to the philosophical catchwords
which had been the fashion at the time, and to the ordinary sentiments
of the day toward politics, art, and morality. But they did all this
with great moderation, that they might not lose their reputation for
scientific gravity, and that they might not fail in respect toward
scientific philological history, which disdains the vain ornaments in
which philosophers, dilettantes, and charlatans delight. They ended
by tolerating historians of the type above described, but as a lesser
evil, and as a general rule inclined to pardon the sins arising out
of their commerce with 'ideas' in favour of the 'new documents' which
they had discovered or employed, and which they could always dig out of
their books as a useful residue, while purifying them from 'subjective'
admixtures--that is to say, from the elaboration of them which had
been attempted. Philosophy was known to them only as 'philosophy of
history,' but even thus rather by reason of its terrible ill-fame than
from direct acquaintance. They remembered and were ever ready to repeat
five or six anecdotes concerning errors in names and dates into which
celebrated philosophers had actually fallen, easily forgetful of the
innumerable errors into which they fell themselves (being more liable
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