THEORY & HISTORY
OF HISTORIOGRAPHY
by
BENEDETTO CROCE
authorized translation
BY
DOUGLAS AINSLIE
LONDON
GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY
1921
PREFACE
TO THE FIRST ITALIAN EDITION
Almost all the writings which compose the present treatise were printedin the proceedings of Italian academies and in Italian reviews between1912 and 1913. Since they formed part of a general scheme, theircollection in book form presented no difficulties. This volume hasappeared in German under the title Zur Theorie und Geschichte derHistoriographie (Tübingen, Mohr, 1915).
On publishing in book form in Italian, I made a few slight alterationshere and there and added three brief essays, placed as an appendix tothe first part.
The description of the volume as forming the fourth of my Philosophyof the Spirit requires some explanation; for it does not really forma new systematic part of the philosophy, and is rather to be lookedupon as a deepening and amplification of the theory of historiography,already outlined in certain chapters of the second part, namely theLogic. But the problem of historical comprehension is that towardwhich pointed all my investigations as to the modes of the spirit,their distinction and unity, their truly concrete life, which isdevelopment and history, and as to historical thought, which is theself-consciousness of this life. In a certain sense, therefore, thisresumption of the treatment of historiography on the completion of thewide circle, this drawing forth of it from the limits of the firsttreatment[Pg 6] of the subject, was the most natural conclusion that couldbe given to the whole work. The character of 'conclusion' both explainsand justifies the literary form of this last volume, which is morecompressed and less didactic than that of the previous volumes.
B. C.
Naples: May 1916
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
The author himself explains the precise connexion of the present workwith the other three volumes of the Philosophy of the Spirit, towhich it now forms the conclusion.
I had not contemplated translating this treatise, when engaged uponthe others, for the reason that it was not in existence in its presentform, and an external parallel to its position as the last, the latecomer of the four masterpieces, is to be found in the fact of itspublication by another firm than that which produced the precedingvolumes. This diversity in unity will, I am convinced, by no means actas a bar to the dissemination of the original thought contained in itspages, none of which will, I trust, escape the diligent reader throughthe close meshes of the translation.
The volume is similar in format to the Logic, the Philosophy of thePractical, and the Æsthetic. The last is now out of print, but willreappear translated by me from the definitive fourth Italian edition,greatly exceeding in bulk the previous editions.
The present translation is from the second Italian edition, publishedin 1919. In this the author made some slight verbal corrections anda few small additions. I have, as always, followed the text with theclosest respect.
D. A.
The Athenæum, London
November 1920