RANKE, LEOPOLD von. - Historian, b. at Wiehe (Thuringia) on 21 Dec. 1785, into a family of Protestant pastors, d. at Berlin on 23 May 1886.
Having entered the University of Leipzig at the age of 18, he showed an interest in questions of biblical hermeneutics and above all in philology. Having obtained his doctorate in 1817, in 1818 a secondary-school teacher at Frankfurt an der Oder, he published in 1824 the 1st part of the Gesch. der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1535, not from the readings of the Italian historians of the 16th century, which earned him in 1825 the chair of history at the University of Berlin. Continuing his research in the archives, he was the first to recognize the importance of the Relazioni of the Venetian ambassadors for the history of Europe in the 16th-17th centuries; then in 1827-31, at Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome, he gathered an enormous amount of material, from which arose the researches on European history in the age of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. Having returned to Germany, he directed and for the most part compiled the Historisch-politische Zeitschrift (1832-36). Having abandoned militant politics, he devoted himself to the writing of his major works. Appointed official Prussian historiographer in 1841, he founded in 1858 the Historical Commission at the Academy of Sciences of Munich, which published, among other things, the Acts of the Imperial Diet. In 1867 he began the publication of his complete works, while still continuing original works; having retired from his chair, he set his hand to a Universal History (1879), of which 6 vols. appeared up to 1885 and which remained interrupted at his death.
R. is one of the significant figures of the generation of historians of the first half of the 19th century. His ideal is an effort at objectivity that is converted into the exposition of «how things properly happened» (wie es eigentlich gewesen); hence his decisive appeal to archival investigation for the history of modern Europe and therefore the devaluation of narrative sources, with the conviction of the possibility of an «objective» reconstruction of the facts, that would overcome every controversialist position; but he did not clearly see the danger of restricting history to a conflict of great leading figures and of resolving the whole course of an epoch into its «diplomatic history», that is, into the activity of the Chancelleries.
R. preferred to narrate rather than to discuss; for him the work also posed a problem of style. From Romanticism, from his youth, he recognized in human vicissitudes the imprint, the revelation of God. However, in the exposition of religious movements and theological controversies his old Protestant point of view is evident. On the Catholic side, I. Döllinger, J. Janssen and L. v. Pastor were set against him.
Among the most important works are remembered: Die römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (1834-36, 3 vols., placed on the Index on 16 Sept. 1841); Deutsche Gesch. im Zeitalter der Reformation (1839-43, 5 vols.); Französische Gesch., vornehmlich im 16. und 17. Jahrh. (1852-56, 4 vols.); Englische Gesch., vornehmlich im 17. Jahrh. (1859-68, 7 vols.); Neue Bücher preussischer Gesch. (1847-48, reworked in 1873); Weltgesch., begun in 1879 and carried down to the death of Otto I: vols. VII-IX, down to 1453, were published posthumously together with the celebrated lectures Über die Epochen der neueren Gesch. delivered in 1854 at Berchtesgaden, in the presence of Maximilian II of Bavaria.
Bibliography15 works
Francesco Natale