A Dangerous Domain: Bartholomew Keckermann on History and Historiography

• Authors: Wojciech Ryczek
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The main purpose of the paper is to present and discuss some Keckermann’s thoughts on history and the art of historiography, expressed in the treatise De natura et proprietatibus historiae commentarius (Hanovie 1610), published posthumously by his student, David Schumann. According to the humanist from Gdańsk, history is not art, science, or discipline, because it does not have own commonplaces (loci communes), regarded as the basis for method. Nevertheless, history plays an important role in teaching of the practical arts such as politics or economy, because it is an inexhaustible source of examples, taken from narratives about the past events to illustrate general rules related to human life and actions. An excellent historian would be only someone who is able to combine searching for the truth with frankness in its telling. Therefore, he is obliged to use a simple style without almost any rhetorical devices. In relation to single events history serves as a tool of description and explication. Thus it provides the necessary illustrative material in the form of examples for the practical disciplines.

Keywords

PL

Keckermann; history; historiography; logic; rhetoric

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 61

Dates

published

2017

online

2018-03-25

Contributors

author

Wojciech Ryczek

Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/OiRwP.2017.SI.09