Auxiliary sciences of history
The historical auxiliary sciences (including Historic basic science or historical auxiliary sciences [ GHW ] ) are a sub-discipline of historical research, which focuses on process the historical sources. The extensive range of subjects with partly independent methods is by no means closed.
The term auxiliary sciences can be interpreted as a pejorative, so that Karl Brandi in 1939 proposed the term basic sciences. He wanted to point out that the research results and skills of research assistants for the historical work are essential. The discussion has been taken up again and again, without reaching a conclusion.
History
The foundations of scientific instrument criticism and thus the auxiliary historical sciences have placed Daniel Papebroch and Jean Mabillon in the 17th century. However, the term appears as " elementary adiumenta et historica " (Tübingen 1734), " Auxilia historica " ( Regensburg, 1741) or " subsidiarity historica " ( Marburg, 1785) until the 18th century. The German term " historical auxiliary sciences " falls for the first time in 1761 in Johann Christoph Gatterer " Handbook on Universal History." In the 19th century, they are part of university training and core training of archivists, for example at the École Nationale des Chartes in Paris or the Austrian Institute for Historical Research in Vienna.
Field of work
The subjects covered by the historical auxiliary sciences summarizes disciplines that deal with the immediate understanding of the historical sources:
- Paleography
- Epigraphy
- Diplomatics
- Sphragistics
- Codicology
- Cover customer
- Customer records
- Numismatics
- Material Culture
- Heraldry
- Genealogy
- Historical Chronology
- Historical metrology
- Past in computer science
Central to the historical auxiliary sciences is working with written documents that have emerged from administrative operations, in particular the instruments ( diplomacy ).
Initially developed as tools for document review, the palaeography ( paleography ), the Sigillography ( sphragistics ) and the historical era doctrine ( chronology ) have become independent. The paleography studied nowadays mainly medieval literary manuscripts, the chronology is also dedicated to Komputistik and social importance of dating styles. For the administrative sources of the late Middle Ages and early modern times, the special disciplines of file and document customer and the official book science have emerged since the mid-20th century.
With the expansion of the sources used by historians since the 1980s back representational ( Material Culture ) and pictorial sources in the foreground.
Characteristics
The historical auxiliary sciences often have a strong object reference. The substantive form of historical sources occurs to its contents in the foreground. So are the books as objects subject of manuscript studies ( codicology ) and book history, the coins subject of numismatics, the insignia and everyday objects subject of the insignia customer and Material Culture, inscriptions subject of epigraphy, ancient maps theme of the history of cartography.
A common feature of the subjects taught the principle to identify formal properties of the sources: the external and internal features of the documents are evidence of the authenticity of the pieces, headings should write places or writers are assigned, etc. The Past in computer science is based on this methodological commonality and seek formalized (and thus expressible in algorithms ) methods of historical sciences, in particular in dealing with the sources.
Important commonality between the disciplines is that knowledge in the respective sub-disciplines are essential for dealing with the original sources. Thus, the Historical Geography tries to determine geographical conditions of the past, so for example a place name can be identified in a medieval document. So metrology attempts to resolve historical dimensions, to give the historian a picture of the weight, volume or extent of the source content. So give the archive customer knowledge about the organization of archives in order to facilitate access to information held in them materials. So the genealogy tries to unravel the relationships the past to classify historical events in personal relationship networks.
Science Political Situation
Around 2000, the auxiliary sciences have been driven back institutionally in Germany, which is due to the debate on the self-definition of the science of history. The " linguistic turn " and the relativity of historical facticity, which is usually associated with the name Hayden White, has the attention of the historical scientific community focused on research areas that are devoted to the possibilities of interpretation of historical knowledge and defer the construction of historical knowledge. The auxiliary scientists try this pressure with stress on traditional research services as well as to deal with the integration of their research in cross-disciplinary research topics ( for example, literacy and orality, Digital Edition). Through an increasingly focused on records management training the archivists operate only rarely the formal analysis of the archive material, although an update of the file client to the 19th and 20th centuries as urgent research tasks provide such an in-depth paleography of the modern era for the archive user with useful tools could provide.
The German higher education policy classifies the historical auxiliary sciences as Small tray (see also List of fringe subjects ). A Germany -wide mapping of the courses can be found at the place of work Small pockets.