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| In the "Atlas of European Historiography", 2010 |
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Bibliographies are reference works made
of compilations of books, journal articles, thesis, about an argument, a
language, a period, a geographical area, etc.. After WWII, they started also to include
new media like sound recordings, motion
pictures, photographs, later videos, CD-ROM/DVD, software's and databases; more recently even single websites.
Being an overview of different media
publications connected to a particular category of knowledge, a bibliography could be
strictly descriptive and analytical of the listed materials divided in categories or could, instead, present critically the
literature.
National
Historical Bibliographies
are following identical criteria’s of organization in their conception, but are focusing on the selection of the historiography based on the history of single Nation-States.
Mainly serials publications, less single
book editions,
they are listing
titles and not
offering a history of the historiography
in the field: the
titles listed are rarely critically
presented.
Starting in 1926, the International bibliography of historical
sciences (published alternatively in five different languages each year)
was edited by the International Committee
of the Historical Sciences. It listed all kind of historical bibliographies
published as books or inside academic journals. The same International
Committee published the World List of
historical periodical and bibliographies edited by Pierre Caron and Marc Jaryc
(Oxford, 1939). The
repertorium is made of bibliographies in the field of history; again, not
an interpretative history of the historiography with abstract of titles. When
looking at these
bibliographies of historical bibliographies, we understand that few national
historical bibliographies were already published during the last quarter of the
19th century.
National Historical Bibliographies are reference
works for historians, but they represent also a kind of national “memory place” although Pierre Nora did not
chose French Historical Bibliographies like he, instead, selected Ernest Lavisse Histoire de France
depuis les origines jusqu’à la Révolution written in 1901,
as one of the “topoi” of the national
identity. National
bibliographies help to maintain and preserve, collecting history titles, the history
of a Nation-State
building process. In
this case, even the chronological or
geographical sub-categories adopted in each national bibliographies are telling their reader with bibliographical records listed
under geographical and chronological categories –not only using topical ones-, about
the historiographical construction of a single nation’s history.
Many European countries (also the USA)
adopted these reference instruments between the end of the 19th century and the
late twenties of the 20th century, mainly after WWI.
Belgium became a
National state in
1831. In this case, historical bibliographies are telling us about the
new Nation’s past
and they collect the historiography which is referring to the construction of a
Belgian nation “existing” before the
official date of its birth.
In 1893, the famous Belgian historian Henri Pirenne edited a bibliography for the history of Belgium up to 1830. He
used both geographical and topical categories in a bibliography starting from the
year 1598 with the
reign of Albert and Isabel. And,
like Belgium during
the Spanish domination, the bibliography included the historiography published for the Austrian, French and Dutch regimes. (Henri Pirenne: Bibliographie de l'Histoire de Belgique.
Catalogue methodique et chronologique des sources et des ouvrages principaux
relatifs a l'histoire de tous les Pays-Bas jusqu'en 1598 et a l'histoire de
Belgique jusqu'en 1830. Bruxelles, Lamertin, 1893.)
The French historian and archivist Pierre
Caron (1875-1952), which founded the Revue
d'histoire moderne et contemporaine in 1899, edited many bibliographies and, together
with Henri Stein,
the first systematic French National Historical Bibliography. The Répertoire bibliographique de l'histoire de France, (Paris,
A.Picard, 1923-1938) started in 1923. Other bibliographies on
French History were
integrated within the Auxiliary Sciences
Section of such a current bibliography. During the ‘30, a Bibliographie critique des principaux travaux parus sur l'histoire de
1600 à 1914. Travaux de langue française ou relatifs à l'histoire de France,
(Paris, Maison du livre français, 1935-1937)
was also published in 3 volumes.
For Germany, between 1853 and 1887, Ernst Zuchold and others edited
a general historical bibliography like it was
the case in other countries during the 19th century. (Bibliotheca historico geographica oder systematisch geordnete
Uebersicht der in Deutschland und dem Auslande auf dem Gebiete der gesammten
Geschichte und Geographie neu erschienenen Bücher, Göttingen). The Bibliotheca
historico geographica was listing the scientific output
of history in
Germany and was not focusing on the
history of Germany
as a single Nation-State. From 1873, the Berlin Historical Society published
the Mittheilungen aus der historischen
Litteratur, but,
specific historical writings
on German History, were listed in the Dresden
journal, Historische
Viertelsjahrschrift, only from 1890.
In
Switzerland, the Bibliographie der
Schweizergeschichte started to be published in German in 1913, edited by
the Schweizerische Landesbibliothek in
Bern and the Allgemeine
Geschichtsforschende Gesellschaft der Schweiz.
In Italy, the Annuario bibliografico della storia d'Italia was published in Pisa
between 1902 and 1909. But
historians had to wait for the publication, in 1942, during the fascist regime, of the
first volume of the Bibliografia Storica Nazionale, dedicated to the history publications for the year 1939. The BSN is
still active today but includes also historical titles published in Italy not about
Italy
itself. Other European countries followed the same pattern of publication. Čeněk
Zíbrt published the Bibliografie české
historie in Prague, during the years 1900 to 1912, the same period Italians
thought, for the first time, to reflect to the historiography dedicated to
their young nation.
Today,
National Historical Bibliographies are offered as online databases with
advanced searching capacities. The European project European Historical Bibliographies is implementing in Berlin, a digital portal for accessing all National European Bibliographies. This unified reference instrument is an essential companion to the historical profession. And this is true even today that the use of bibliographies is decreasing heavily. Such an important online tool
is also underlining an historical shift to another historical and geographical
construction: "Europeanness" where Europe was and still remains the sum of national states histories.
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Updated version of the article published in Ilaria Porciani and Lutz Raphael (eds.): Atlas of European historiography: the making of a profession 1800-2005., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan/European Science Foundation, 2010, p.36.
