Herodotus
A Greek author of the 5th century BC. Since Cicero he has been called "the father of history". He travelled, questioned people and wrote down their stories, often noting that he could not vouch for them himself.
Figures
Figures
The method of working with sources took shape over centuries, and at its origins stand a few authors whose names every historian knows. Alongside them we describe professions whose members rarely become famous, but without whose work documents would simply not have survived to our day.
Great historians ask the questions. Answering them depends on people who spend years protecting paper from light and damp.
How we chose the material: this section includes only classics of historical method from the distant past about whom verified information exists, together with general portraits of professions. We do not mention modern people.
Classics of historical method
Three authors often cited when people describe the origins of historical scholarship.
Thucydides
The author of the History of the Peloponnesian War. He sought to rely on verified testimony and was critical of stories that could not be confirmed. His work is regarded as a model of rigorous method.
Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886)
A historian who urged others to show the past "as it actually was" (wie es eigentlich gewesen) and to rely on archival documents. His name is linked with making archival work the foundation of historical research.
The people who look after the past
Professions without famous names: their members usually stay behind the scenes, yet they are the ones who make sources accessible.
Archivist
Takes documents into custody, describes them, builds finding aids and helps researchers locate the right file. A good finding aid saves a reader weeks of searching.
Document conservator
Strengthens fragile paper, halts the decay of ink and gently cleans sheets and photographs. The rule is to do no harm and to add nothing that could be mistaken for the original.
Old photos (in Russian)
Palaeographer
A specialist in old handwriting and writing practices. Helps read difficult texts and, from the shapes of the letters, estimate roughly when they were written.
Family historian
Gathers information about ancestors: talks to relatives, sorts through home archives, works with parish registers and other records. This can be a professional or any enthusiastic reader.
How to read about the classics
- Separate what is known from reliable information from later legends about the author's life
- Remember that ancient texts reached us in much later copies, not in the author's own manuscripts
- Do not hold ancient historians to modern standards of footnotes and references
- Pay attention to whom the author was writing for and why
- When quoting a famous phrase, check it in a reliable edition rather than a book of quotations
Related sections
- History
How attitudes to evidence about the past changed, from ancient authors to the archival scholarship of the 19th century.
- Timeline
Key dates in the history of sources: from antiquity to a modern archive law.
- Ideas
Key ideas for working with the past: source, testimony, attribution, dating, provenance, context.
- Sources
Types of sources, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to cite them.
Sources
- Encyclopaedic sources on historiography and the history of photography
- Russian Federal Law No. 125-FZ "On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation"
Specific dates and facts in this guide come from encyclopaedic works and official programme descriptions; everything else is described in general terms. Dates for old documents are almost always approximate, and we try to state plainly how certain we are.