In the first part the author outlines the origin and development of the study of the history of philosophical historiography, understood as the ripe outcome of that historicism, which from the Renaissance onwards increasingly characterises modern thought. In the second part, the author identifies the problematic aspects of this different and more refined way of approaching the philosophies of the past. On the one hand, the augmented critical awareness that imbues these studies may bring about the bursting out of the latent crisis encountered by the historico-philosophical activity due to the vanishing of the teleological perspective centred around the concept of progress. On the other hand, the critical analysis of the categories and schemes adopted by the historico-philosophical practice may lead to a more appropriate understanding of the philosophical past, with which the theoretical enquiry itself is constantly confronted. In this regard, a paradigmatic example is represented by the analysis of the category called the modern.