Historiography

Historiography is the branch of history which deals with the study of the history and methodology of the field of history. The earliest tradition of historiography belongs to the Greeks. Greek history proper begins in the 6th century B.C. Herodotus was the first Greek historian to recognize the value of the important international episodes and he developed a system by which he could omit the irrelevant and spotlight the major events. He was the author of the first universal history. Herodotus was born in an aristocratic family of Halicarnassus in South West Asia Minor, sometimes between 490 and 480 B.C. He spent most of his time in travel. He visited almost all Greek cities. Wherever he went he collected materials for his great work on the Persian invasion of Greece. 

Patristic historiography was the most important aspect of historical writing, during the Middle Ages. At the same time a fair measure of secular historical writing also developed in the medieval period. During the Middle Ages, the shift from Christian methodology to secular did not mean really an improvement; since many modern writers who were merely chroniclers retained all the defects of the Patristic tradition but were also deficient in scholarship which was the hallmark of the monks. The Christian monks had a monopoly of historiography during the Middle Ages. Further the medieval historians were themselves a small elite group of scholars who wrote to inform or to please another small elite group of readers. The transitional period from the decline of Rome to the end of Charlemagne represented the first half of the medieval period and the centuries from Charlemagne to the Renaissance stood for the second half of that period; and each had its distinctive characteristics. During the earlier period Cassiodorus' 'History of the Goths', Procopius' 'The History of his own Times', Paulus Wamifridus' 'History of Lombards' etc., were considered as the best historical writings.

A fresh reorientation of historiography studies began to appear at the close of the middle Ages. Truly speaking, "a reaction began with the Renaissance which brought about secularization of thought". During this period when the Turks took Constantinople they did a signal service to European intellectual tradition.

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