history

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History of the late 17th century: The fearful Köge or Eine warhaffte and history worthy of memory (Leipzig, 1695)

The word history [ hɪsˈtoːʀi̯ə ] (the emphasis is on the “o”, the final “e” is pronounced as a fading form of the Latin variant historia ) until the 18th century denotes the report, the individual message, the individual story, the narrative whether fictional or true.

In historical studies in particular, many comprehensive narrative ancient and medieval historical works are called histories . Compositions such as “universal history” or “church history” came up in the 17th century to form an area of ​​world history.

The word largely disappeared in German usage when historical science was developed in the 19th century. Today it retains an independent significance in Shakespeare research, taking into account the structure found in the first posthumous Shakespeare edition, the folio edition of 1623 . It differentiates between comedies, histories and tragedies: comedies , histories (or historical dramas) and tragedies .

In early modern research , the word is used in particular when one wants to forego retrospectively booking texts too clearly as fictional literature . The problem here is usually that these texts were classified rather undifferentiated as edifying, instructive narratives, reports, simply "histories", without a more intensive discussion of their factuality.

The mediaeval and early modern speaking of history goes back to an ancient one.

Histories in antiquity and in Byzantium

The word Historia comes from the Greek and originally means "exploration" or "exploration", and this is how it was used by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus . Only Aristotle then used the term historia in the sense of "history" or "historiography". A number of ancient works offered histories bundling different subject areas (e.g. historical, geographical and religious subjects). The most important were the Histories of Herodotus , those written by Polybius , the Sallusts , which have been handed down in fragments , the Histories of Tacitus and the Histories of Prokopius of Caesarea . In addition, there were a large number of other works that bore this title, but are often only preserved in fragments.

Compared to modern historiography, what the works have in common is a certain fragmentation into individual histories, although each one has an overarching theme. To a large extent, the authors wrote with the intention of teaching and representing personal political points of view; the claim to "truthfulness" was never given up. The ancient histories were designed in a sophisticated manner and mostly made use of stylized art prose. Often they dealt with contemporary history, but the term historia in Greek historiography cannot be limited to this alone. Rather, past events could also be depicted and the depiction could extend into the author's lifetime (as with Polybius). Too narrow a definition of the term historia is more misleading than helpful, especially since the subject of historical consideration could vary greatly in ancient histories . Histories were often created in a universal historical manner (according to the standards of the respective time) and provided with numerous excursions. This applies above all to the area of Greek historiography and here especially to the histories of Herodotus, Polybius and Procopius, where the subject area dealt with was very broad.

In the area of ​​Latin-Roman historiography, the universal historical approach was less widespread, but the histories of Sallust and the histories (as well as the annals ) of Tacitus also differed from the purely annalistic representation. In Roman historiography also were Historiae conceived as a contemporary historical representations in general (and enjoyed great popularity), while in contrast, under Annales the more distant past were understood descriptions. After Tacitus, however, historiography in the Latin-speaking part of the empire flattened out and was eventually replaced by the biographical form of representation (see Suetonius , Marius Maximus and Historia Augusta ). It was not until the end of the 4th century that Ammianus Marcellinus again offered a coherent, detailed description of historical events (enriched with numerous digressions) in Latin; it was to be the last significant work of Latin history from antiquity.

The situation was different in the Greek-speaking East, where the historiographical tradition founded by Herodotus and Thucydides (who, however, avoided the term Historia ) remained alive until late antiquity ; the last histories were written by Theophylactus Simokates in the early 7th century.

In Byzantine historiography , the classicist models were also used again from the late 10th century.

Usage of terms in the Middle Ages and early modern times

The cheap market: Whimsical and strange histories by Tillen Eulenspiegel c.1720.

The ancient historical works that have been preserved in Latin were among the texts that were received early in the Middle Ages. They were particularly suitable for building up the Exempla literature as a rich source of material. In medieval historiography, several works were also entitled Historiae , for example For example, in the early Middle Ages, the historical work of Gregory of Tours or the work of Nithard , although the way of representation differed very clearly from that of ancient works. The old classicist claim disappeared, but elements of ancient historiography continued to flow into it. In the further course of the Middle Ages, several other historical works bore the title Historia or this designation was part of the overall title.

Later, the word historia increasingly also referred to all forms of report, narrative, story, an area that, judged in retrospect, was uncritically structured. From today's point of view, it regularly contains fictional histories, legendary reports, and compilations of information on the same level as texts from the gradually emerging public historiography, which increasingly sought academic standards in the fields of secular and church history in the 17th century.

In theoretical considerations on the task of histories before the middle of the 18th century, the question of the didactic usefulness that history gains in the hands of the clever reader is stronger than the differentiation between true histories (today history books) and fictions (today literature). To learn from history is the historian's goal. World history is traditionally seen as a compendium of interesting examples that politicians, speakers, and preachers can use to derive maxims and instructions for action. This has to do with the landscape of debates, which was decisive until the middle of the 18th century. In it there is neither an area of ​​public history which, with the establishment of a university, is responsible for the critical reappraisal of the past, nor is there an area of ​​literary studies before 1750 that handed down fictional texts. The division of the sciences opposes the emergence of a historical science. The traditional division of the sciences into theology, jurisprudence, medicine and philosophy survived until the late 18th century, it is familiar with a broader discussion of history, especially in the basic studies of the so-called philosophical disciplines. A change only takes place here with secularization, in the wake of which the Western European nation-states expand historical studies into a discussion platform on which the interests of state and church are negotiated.

In the course of the early modern period, the areas of history diverge on the book market. Universal histories and church histories become increasingly academic matter in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. Histories as plural, on the other hand, are increasingly becoming an arbitrary commodity. Customer histories speak at the lower market often look at the area popular cheaper books of literary criticism today as chapbooks are summarized. The fact that the public here simply demanded histories shows, above all, a lack of interest in the genres that were increasingly defined among elegant books in the 17th and 18th centuries in order to appeal to reading tastes. Historians' customers remain interested in well-known heroes, whether they are reading A Historia worth reading by Hertzog Ernst, in Bavaria and Austria , a beautiful and funny Histori by the four Heymons children, Adelhart, Ritfart, Writfart, and Reinold: Samt their steed Bayart, what knightly deeds they committed against the heathen, in the time of Caroli Magni, king in France, and the first Roman kayser , by the horned Siegfried , by Alexander the great, or in the funny case of Tillen Eulenspiegel . The fact that all of this is simply offered under the label of known histories proclaims at the same time that what is sought here is not the art and style of the novel or the heroic epic , but the action itself, the heroic deeds worth reading.

The word also regularly refers to individual reports in which official historiography was not interested. By Johann Henrich Reitz started collection of the history The Wiedergebohrnen, or godly example, so bekandt- and benant- as unbekandt- and unbenanter Christians, male and female sex [...] As the same first drawn from God and be converted, and after much fighting and Fears, brought to faith and rest in their conscience by God's Spirit and Word (1698–1745) set standards here, like the numerous histories that market spectacular individual news.

Shakespeare's historical dramas

Title page of the Shakespeare folio edition of 1623
Table of contents with structure of the pieces

A separate genre is now marked out with the dramas, which were delimited as histories in the first posthumous complete edition of the works of William Shakespeare . The edition notes a total of three categories. Comedies, histories and tragedies and it includes a content-related department of pieces:

The structure has its own justification, since it contains the pieces in the folio edition that deal with material from recent English history. It raises problems because Shakespeare also brought plays other than histories on the market in the previous editions, such as King Lear or the Merchant of Venice, and at the same time he labeled some of the histories listed here differently: Henry the V as “Chronicle History "Or Richard II as" Tragedy ". The first Hamlet prints make the problem clear. They offered the Tragicall History of Hamlet .

Obviously the word does not clearly refer to a genre. On the title pages of the quarto editions, which brought out the pieces individually during Shakespeare's lifetime, the word of history regularly introduces the view of the content, the view of the story that the piece tells. With the pieces that were given this classification in the folio edition, a genre developed regardless of which the main feature was an episodic structure. Historical events are put on the stage in individual scenes.

The genre experienced a renaissance in the second half of the 18th century as part of the German Shakespeare discovery. The historical dramas of Goethe ( Götz von Berlichingen 1773, Clavigo 1774, Egmont 1775–1788) and Schiller's ( Don Karlos 1787/88, the Wallenstein trilogy 1799, Maria Stuart 1800) continued them with new impulses.

History painting

A genre of paintings of its own developed from the traditions of visual historical reporting, which was already publicly present in churches in the Middle Ages with images of biblical histories in particular and, in the early modern period, developed new forms with single-sheet woodcuts on historical events: the genre of history painting - on this the more detailed article .

literature

To ancient histories

  • Dieter Flach: Roman historiography. 3rd edition, WBG, Darmstadt 2001
  • John Marincola (Ed.): A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. 2 vols., Blackwell, Oxford 2007
  • Klaus Meister : The Greek historiography. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990

On the histories of the Middle Ages and the early modern period

  • Joseph Görres : The German people books. Closer appreciation of the beautiful little history, weather and medicine books, which have received partly internal value, partly coincidence, through centuries up to our time. Mohr and Zimmer, Heidelberg 1807
  • Herbert Grundmann : Historiography in the Middle Ages. Genera - Epochs - Character. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965.
  • Hilkert Weddige: The "Historien vom Amadis aus Franckreich": Documentary basis for the creation and reception. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1975

To Shakespeare's historical dramas

  • Michael Hattaway, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003
  • Emma Smith (Ed.), Shakespeare's Histories: A Guide to Criticism. Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2004

Web links

Wiktionary: History  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ↑ See, for example, Johann Christian Nehring's Kurtze Introduction to the Universal History, How to Teach the Same Young Children: In 136 simple-minded questions and answers / In addition to a chronological table presented and given to the beloved youth for the best (Cölln an der Spree: Rüdiger, 1698).
  2. ↑ See, for example, Gottfried Arnold's Church and Heretic History .
  3. ↑ Guido Schepens: History and Historia: Inquiry in the Greek Historians . In: John Marincola (Ed.): A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography . 2 vol., Blackwell, Oxford 2007, p. 39ff., Especially p. 41f.
  4. ^ Aulus Gellius , Noctes Atticae , 5, 18, 1ff. See also Michael von Albrecht : History of Roman Literature . Vol. 1 (of 2), 3rd edition, Munich 2003, pp. 290f.
  5. ↑ John Marincola (Ed.): A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography offers the currently most comprehensive overview of ancient historiography and the subject of histories . 2 vols., Blackwell, Oxford 2007.
  6. ↑ On the historical literature of the Middle Ages cf. about the overview in Franz Brunhölzl : History of Latin Literature in the Middle Ages . Vol. 1ff. Munich 1975ff.
  7. ↑ See César Vichard de Saint-Réal , De l'Usage de l'histoire (Paris, 1671) or anonymous titles such as the reasoning about history and its use. In addition to the history of Augusti from the Italian (1707), Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, call number: 255. (1)}.
  8. ↑ A historia worth reading, by Hertzog Ernst, in Bavaria and Austria, How he embarked on a dangerous journey through strange accidents, but was finally again pardoned by the Kayser Otto, who confessed to him after his life. (no place, no year), Munich, Bavarian State Library, signature: Bavar. 4069.44
  9. ↑ Nice and funny histori, of the four Heymons children, Adelhart, Ritfart, Writfart, and Reinold: Together with their horse Bayart, what they did for chivalrous deeds against the heathen, at the time of Caroli Magni, king in France, and first Roman kaysers, have committed; Added to this is the life of H. Reinoldi, the youngest of the four brothers, what miraculous signs and miracles he has done through God's permission; Previously also printed in Cölln. (no place, no year), Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, call number: Lm 13a.
  10. ↑ A Wonderful History of the Horned Siegfried , & c. (Braunschweig / Leipzig, 1726), Göttingen, Lower Saxony. State and University Library, call number: 8 FAB VI, 1150 RARA.
  11. ↑ Historia, Of the great King Alexander, how he wandered through almost the whole world, with many battles and great victories, and brought all of Asia [...] under his power within twelve years with great unbelievable speed, now all over again old Teutschen language in print. (Nuremberg: Endter, 1670), Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, call number: Lh 7.
  12. ↑ Whimsical and strange histories of Tillen Eulenspiegel [...] Completely new and improved edition. Printed this year. (no place, no year), Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, call number: Lo.1321.
  13. ^ Johann Henrich Reitz, History of the re-drilling. Complete edition of the first print of all 7 parts of the Pietist collective biography (1698–1745) with a work history appendix of the variants and additions from the later editions. Edited by Hans-Jürgen Schrader (Tübingen: Niemeyer 1982).