Court historiography

Court historiography is an official type of historiography , whereby the court as such or individual persons of the court, emperors , popes , kings , princes , dukes , counts etc. are described. Often it is not just about a description of the real events at court, but also about glorifying and exaggerating the person concerned.

This type of historiography is very important, but precisely because of this tendency to use it very critically. A historiography to which this designation applies existed at an early stage. For example in the age of early Italian humanism one finds the official function of a court historian or court historiographer. Well-known representatives of this guild were: Antonio Beccadelli , Francesco Filelfo or Francesco Petrarca .

Another type of court historiography is memoir . These are self-testimonies of high nobles. Often, if not generally, there is a tendency to glorify one's own life. Sometimes, however, they are very factual and therefore particularly valuable as cultural and historical evidence of the conditions at court.

Here is Catherine II. As an example, the specifications of an insight into the culture at the Russian court under Elizabeth , Peter III. and partly mediate during the reign of Catherine. There are also memoirs of Kaiser Wilhelm II .