A dangerous domain : Bartholomew Keckermann on history and historiography

Bibliogr., streszcz. po ang.

A Dangerous Domain: Bartholomew Keckermann on History and Historiography.The main purpose of the paper is to present and discuss some Keckermann’s thoughts on history and the art of historiography, expressed in the treatise De natura et proprietatibus historiae commentarius (Hanovie 1610), published posthumously by his student, David Schumann. According to the humanist from Gdansk, history is not art, science, or discipline, because it does not have own commonplaces (loci communes), regarded as the basis for method. Nevertheless, history plays important role in teaching of the practical arts such as politics or economy, because it is an inexhaustible source of examples, taken from narratives about the past events to illustrate the general rules related to the human life and actions. An excellent historian would be only someone who is able to combine searching for the truth with frankness in speaking it. Therefore, he is obligated to use a simple style without almost any rhetorical devices. In relation to single events history serves as a tool of description and explication. Thus it provides the necessary illustrative material in the form of examples for the practical disciplines.