Abstract
Textbooks of historical research usually distinguish between the external and the internal criticism of the sources. The former is often termed (after Langlois and Seignobos) erudite criticism or (after Bern-heim) lower criticism; the latter is called higher criticism or, as has been mentioned earlier, hermeneutics. Assimilating the principles of criticism, especially those of external criticism, was for a long time-from the birth of the erudite approach in the 17th century-the main component of the methodological training of historians. It has remained so to this day, but as we move away from the positivist and idiographic approach, which attaches excessive importance to source-based knowledge, historians must be given more and more elements of the general methodology of history.
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References
Reading is interpreted here very broadly, so as to cover extracting information from non-written material sources (e.g., traces of an old building).
S. Kościałkowski (cf. Historyka, ed. cit., p. 79) restricts the study of the authenticity of sources to establishing whether a given source “conveys the text in its original, unchanged and uncontaminated content, form, and wording, given to it by its true author”. M. Handelsman distinguishes — next to the study of the time and place of origin and the authorship of a given source-the criticism of the nature of a source (whether a given document is genuine or not, pp. 45 ff) and what he calls the analysis of the sources (pp. 159 ff), intended to sort out original, secondary, dependent, etc., sources. We find the same in Bernheim (pp. 324-446). Langlois and Seignobos single out, within external criticism, critique de restitution (pp. 51 ff) and critique de provenance (pp. 66 ff). The former means establishing the proper text (e.g., by the comparison of several copies), and the latter, finding out the origin of a given source. Valuable data on external and internal criticism are to be found in Studia źródłoznawcze.
We might also say that, regardless of our knowledge of their time and place of origin, all sources are authentic. This would be a still more general, unrestricted, concept of authenticity, but useless in our considerations.
On extra-logical rules see J. Giedymin, Problemy logiczne, ed cit., p. 2.
Cf. A. J. Ayer, “Imiona wlasne a deskrypcje”(Proper Names Versus Descriptions), quoted after the Polish-language text in Studia Filozoficzne, No. 5/1960, pp. 136–56.
M. Bloch, Apologie pour l’histoire, ed. cit., pp. 115–116.
Cf. M. Handelsman, Historyka, ed. cit., pp. 135 ff; E. Bernheim, Lehrbuch der historischen Methode, ed. cit., pp. 391 ff. On the place of origin see Ch. Higouet, “La Géohistoire”in: L’histoire et ses méthodes, ed. cit., pp. 68-89.
This example is drawn from Dzieje Gniezna (A History of Gniezno), War-szawa 1965, section written by H. Chłopocka, pp. 133-5.
Kronika wielkopolska (The Greater Poland Chronicle), B. Kürbis (ed.), Warszawa 1965, p. 16.
Cf. G. Labuda, Źródla, sagi i legendy do najdawniejszych dziejów Polski (Sources, Sagas and Legends Relating to the Earliest History of Poland), Warszawa 1960, pp. 9, 111.
Cf. A. Dopsch, Die Wirtschaftsentwicklung der Karolingerzeit vornehmlich in Deutschland, vol. I, 1912, vol. II, 1913.
Quoted after M. Handelsman, op. cit., pp. 148 ff.
The example given by M. Bloch, Apologie pour l’histoire, ed. cit., p. 149.
The concept of reliability has been extensively treated by J. Giedymin in numerous papers. The summing up is to be found in Probkmy, założenia, roz-strzygnięcia (Problems, Assumptions, Decisions), ed. cit., pp. 105 ff. His numerous suggestions and solutions are used in the present book; they are generalized so as to cover all sources, and not only those which were intended to convey information.
Cf. G. H. von Wright, “The Foundation of Norms and Normative Statements”in The Foundation of Statements and Decisions, ed. cit., pp. 351–67. See also J. Topolski and J. Wisniewski, Introduction to Lustracje Województwa Pod-laskiego, 1570 i 1576 (Inspections in Podlasie Province, 1570 and 1576), Wro-claw-Warszawa 1959, p. xxxi.
S. Nowak, Studio, z metodologii nauk spolecznych (Studies in the Methodology of the Social Sciences), Warszawa 1965.
J. Giedymin, op. cit., pp. 106–9.
Ibid., pp. 105 ff.
C. Bobinska failed to grasp these distinctions when she criticized J. Giedymin for his supposed failure to notice the fact that all written sources are tendentious. He did notice it, but all that applies to the concept of real informant. (See C. Bobińska, Historyk. Fakt. Metoda (The Historian, the Fact, the Method), ed. cit., pp. 69-70).
The fact was also noted by J. Giedymin, op. cit., p. 108.
The aspect of the problem is more extensively commented on by C. Bobińska, op. cit., pp. 69 ff.
Of coure, contemporaneity must be interpreted conventionally. A set of legal provisions contains information intended for the contemporaries as long as it is not altered.
An interesting literature of the subject is available.
T. Seweryn, Staropolska grafika ludowa (Old Polish Peasant Drawings), Warszawa 1956, p. 13.
Cf. A. J. Ayer, op. cit., pp. 136 ff. Of statements about individuals see T. Czezowski, Filozofia na rozdrożu — Analizy metodologiczne (Philosophy at Crossroads — Methodological Analyses), ed. cit., pp. 62 ff.
A. J. Ayer, op. cit., pp. 155–6.
The terminology is that of J. Giedymin (op. cit., p. 78), who was also, concerned with authorship studies in his Z problemów logicznych analizy histo-rycznej (Some Logical Issues of Historical Analyses), ed. cit., pp. 47 ff. The problem will be discussed again in connection with mathematical (frequency) analyses of texts.
The summing up of the latest achievements in textual criticism is to be found in R. Marichal, “La critique des textes”in L’histoire et ses méthodes, pp. 247-366. See also H. C. Hockett, The Critical Method in Historical Research and Writing, New York 1955. J. Friedrich, Geschichte der Schrift, Heidelberg 1965, may also prove valuable to a historian.
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Topolski, J. (1976). The Authenticity of Sources and the Reliability of Informants. In: Methodology of History. Synthese Library, vol 88. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1123-5_20
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