Auxiliary sciences of history

"Auxiliary science of history" redirects here. For other uses, see Historical science (disambiguation).

Auxiliary (or ancillary) sciences of history are scholarly disciplines which help evaluate and use historical sources and are seen as auxiliary for historical research.[1][page needed] Many of these areas of study, classification and analysis were originally developed between the 16th and 19th centuries by antiquaries, and would then have been regarded as falling under the broad heading of antiquarianism.[2] "History" was at that time regarded as a largely literary skill. However, with the spread of the principles of empirical source-based history championed by the Göttingen school of history in the late 18th century[3] and later by Leopold von Ranke from the mid-19th century onwards, they have been increasingly regarded as falling within the skill-set of the trained historian.[4][5]

  1. ^ Drake, Miriam A. (2003). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Dekker Encyclopedias Series. Vol. 3. CRC Press. ISBN 0-8247-2079-2.[page needed]
  2. ^ Sweet, Rosemary (2004). Antiquaries: the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain. London: Hambledon & London. p. xiv. ISBN 1-85285-309-3.
  3. ^ Ranke, Leopold von (2011). Iggers, Georg G. (ed.). The Theory and Practice of History. Abingdon: Routledge. p. xix. ISBN 978-0-415-78032-2.
  4. ^ Green, Anna; Troup, Kathleen, eds. (1999). The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory. Manchester University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-7190-5255-2.
  5. ^ Stern, Fritz, ed. (1972). The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present (2nd ed.). New York: Vintage Books. p. 54. ISBN 0-394-71962-X.