Looking at the
Renaissance
Mysteries and
Methods
The excitement of history
lies in connecting with the past, in handling original sources that give us an
encounter with the people of a different world. But a historian's fascination
with the past is accompanied by the need to make sense of that past; there is
an infinity of information out there that needs to be ordered to make it
intelligible. The minute we start asking questions about the past, we begin to
impose this order.
Unravelling a historical
problem to make sense of the past involves two things. We need to analyse
texts, to get as much information as possible out of the evidence, whether it
be written texts, pictures, buildings or archaeological excavations. But no
single piece of evidence can stand on its own, it can only be understood in
context; so different types of evidence have to be put together to create a
proper understanding of the past. The historian is very occasionally in a
position to survey all the available evidence; more often there is a positive
welter of documentation to be considered, and the historian has to decide what
to select. She or he tries to be as objective as possible in making this
choice, but in the last resort each of us has to decide what we think is most
relevant and important in our attempts to explain the past.
In studying history the
two processes go hand in hand. The more we know about the context in which
something has been created or written, the better we can interpret it.
Conversely, as we look into individual texts we may come to think that we have
to reassess the context. We may be led in new and unexpected directions as new
questions occur to us for, as John Guy says, you may 'find something new,
really exciting, but at first you don't know what it means'. (What did
Gutenberg Invent?)
Underlying each of the
television programmes in the series Renaissance Secrets 2, which this guide is
designed to accompany, is a historical puzzle, the solution to which depends on
the questions asked of the evidence, and the way the evidence is interpreted.
For example:
- How was
movable type invented?
- Was
Renaissance Venice really as successful a society as its public relations
machine would have us believe?
- Why
would Queen Elizabeth's doctor want to kill her?
- Was
religion important in advancing Renaissance medicine?
Analysing texts
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