The Study Of The French National History In The Renaissance

T. Stoianovich, An American Scholar, has demonstrated that there exist three historical study patterns in the Western historiography. The first is the Thucydides-Guicciardini pattern, i.e. classical history, which treats history as an approach to the current politics. The second came out of the German nineteenth-century school of historical study. This we may term the linear history, which takes the history as an integrative course of progression and development. The third is the Annaliste history, which focuses on the total history and emphasizes the methods of series, function and structure. We think the Annales' "total history" to be the development of the "integral history", the "civilization history" and the histoire accomplie in the French Renaissance. The French historiography during the Renaissance differs greatly from that of other European countries.Humanism scholarship came late to France. To be true, there were signs of the new scholarship in France even early in 15^th century, while in the middle of this century the new scholarship prevailed in Paris. The 16^th century witnessed the prosperity of humanism scholarship in France. Humanism historiography influenced French historiography through its novel viewpoints and its artful Latin. Yet the next important step in the French historiography occurred, unexpectedly, in the field of law. In other words, the French historiography with its distinctive features did not result from the simple reception of humanism historiography; it took the path of combining law with history.The 16^th century is the heroic age of the French historiography. Under the influence of the Italian humanism scholarship, the French historiography during the Renaissance underwent this process: from the science of philology to the study oflaw; from the historical method of law to the method of history; from the study of the Roman law to the study of the legal, institutional, social, and cultural history; and, from the study of canon and feudal laws, and archives to the writing of national history of France. Owing to the interaction and interpenetration of law and history, French scholars reformed traditional historiography, which brought about great changes to historical thoughts and methods, and then created a new tradition of historical scholarship in France. This dissertation analyses the peculiar path of the French historiography and the origin of the French national history in the Renaissance. Among the topics of the dissertation covered are:I. Italian humanism and French scholarshipII. From the study of language and law to the study of historyIII. From the historical method of law to the method of historyIV. National view of history in the conflict of politics and religionsV. Antiquarian research and the national history of FranceVI. The reconstruction of a national past and the new design of history.This dissertation concludes by summarizing the contributions of French historiography of Renaissance to the Western modern historiography. In the reconstruction of the national history, the work of French jurists was of great significance. Their Gallican convictions prevented them from identifying history with the classical tradition while their humanist interests led them to doubt that the Christian world-plan alone was sufficient. For this reason, they defined naive historicism, pursued a comprehensive method of history, and developed a Gallican view of history. Thus, they made great contributions to both the writing of the national history and the theory of history.