Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Ecclesiastical historiography
(1,747 words)

1. Humanism and Reformation

Whereas late medieval ecclesiastical historians [13] preferred the genres of chronicles, annals, and vitae (Biography; Hagiography), Humanism brought epoch-making changes of direction with its new critical and philological erudition and its programmatic turn to the texts of Antiquity (ad fontes, “to the sources”). The invention of printing also led to the production of a wide range of reliable editions in Christian histori…

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Beutel, Albrecht, “Ecclesiastical historiography”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_022175>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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