THEORY & HISTORY
OF HISTORIOGRAPHY
by
BENEDETTO CROCE
authorized translation
BY
DOUGLAS AINSLIE
LONDON
GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY
1921
PREFACE
TO THE FIRST ITALIAN EDITION
Almost all the writings which compose the present treatise were printed
in the proceedings of Italian academies and in Italian reviews between
1912 and 1913. Since they formed part of a general scheme, their
collection in book form presented no difficulties. This volume has
appeared in German under the title _Zur Theorie und Geschichte der
Historiographie_ (Tübingen, Mohr, 1915).
On publishing in book form in Italian, I made a few slight alterations
here and there and added three brief essays, placed as an appendix to
the first part.
The description of the volume as forming the fourth of my _Philosophy
of the Spirit_ requires some explanation; for it does not really form
a new systematic part of the philosophy, and is rather to be looked
upon as a deepening and amplification of the theory of historiography,
already outlined in certain chapters of the second part, namely the
_Logic_. But the problem of historical comprehension is that toward
which pointed all my investigations as to the modes of the spirit,
their distinction and unity, their truly concrete life, which is
development and history, and as to historical thought, which is the
self-consciousness of this life. In a certain sense, therefore, this
resumption of the treatment of historiography on the completion of the
wide circle, this drawing forth of it from the limits of the first
treatment of the subject, was the most natural conclusion that could
be given to the whole work. The character of 'conclusion' both explains
and justifies the literary form of this last volume, which is more
compressed and less didactic than that of the previous volumes.
B. C.
Naples: May 1916
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
The author himself explains the precise connexion of the present work
with the other three volumes of the _Philosophy of the Spirit_, to
which it now forms the conclusion.
I had not contemplated translating this treatise, when engaged upon
the others, for the reason that it was not in existence in its present
form, and an external parallel to its position as the last, the late
comer of the four masterpieces, is to be found in the fact of its
publication by another firm than that which produced the preceding
volumes. This diversity in unity will, I am convinced, by no means act
as a bar to the dissemination of the original thought contained in its
pages, none of which will, I trust, escape the diligent reader through
the close meshes of the translation.
The volume is similar in format to the _Logic_, the _Philosophy of the
Practical_, and the _Æsthetic_. The last is now out of print, but will
reappear translated by me from the definitive fourth Italian edition,
greatly exceeding in bulk the previous editions.
The present translation is from the second Italian edition, published
in 1919. In this the author made some slight verbal corrections and
a few small additions. I have, as always, followed the text with the
closest respect.
D. A.
The Athenæum, London
November 1920
CONTENTS
PART I
THEORY OF HISTORIOGRAPHY
I. History and Chronicle
II. Pseudo-Histories
III. History as History of the Universal.
Criticism of 'Universal History'
IV. Ideal Genesis and Dissolution of the 'Philosophy of History'
V. The Positivity of History
VI. The Humanity of History
VII. Choice and Periodization
VIII. Distinction (Special Histories) and Division
IX. The 'History of Nature' and History
APPENDICES
I. Attested Evidence
II. Analogy and Anomaly of Special Histories
III. Philosophy and Methodology