Event and Portent: the Fall of Old Oyo, a Problem in Historical Explanation

Africa ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Covering Law ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphExplanation, or the identification and assessment of the causes of events and situations, occupies the central place in nearly all historical writing in the present century. It is also the aspect of history which is most keenly debated by philosophers, and is the main issue today in the unending, wearisome, but seemingly inescapable controversy as to whether history belongs, or belongs more, with the sciences or with the humanities. The scientific or positivist school, numbering among its recent exponents Popper and Gardiner, emphasizes the extent to which historical explanation attains a regularity akin to, though not identical with, that found in the physical and other sciences, Hempel adding the contention that such explanation can always, and often should, be reduced to a ‘covering law’, or single universal statement subsuming the whole explanation. The idealists, among whom Croce, Collingwood, and most recently Oakeshott are prominent, stress conversely the uniqueness of history, and Dray has reinforced their position by his attack on the covering law thesis. The debate is one in which historians themselves have taken little part, and African historians none at all, despite its crucial importance for almost every aspect of their profession. Yet it is a debate which needs continuous illustration from the historiographical process, a need which historians are best able to meet. The aim of the present article is to contribute to the debate by examining as a problem in historical explanation the fall of Oyo, the powerful state of the northern Yoruba, in the early nineteenth century.

scholarly journals Johann Michael von Hermann (1793–1855): A predecessor of Max Schweidler?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 239-270
Author(s):  
Susanne Wagini ◽  
Katrin Holzherr
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Early History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Conservation History ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paper Conservation

Abstract The restorer Johann Michael von Hermann (1793–1855), famous in the early nineteenth century, has long fallen into oblivion. A recent discovery of his work associated with old master prints at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München has allowed a close study of his methods and skills as well as those of his pupil Ludwig Albert von Montmorillon (1794–1854), providing a fresh perspective on the early history of paper conservation. Von Hermann’s method of facsimile inserts was praised by his contemporaries, before Max Schweidler (1885–1953) described these methods in 1938. The present article provides biographical notes on both nineteenth century restorers, gives examples of prints treated by them and adds a chapter of conservation history crediting them with a place in the history of the discipline. In summary, this offers a surprising insight on how works of art used to be almost untraceably restored by this team of Munich-based restorers more than 150 years before Schweidler.

The Round Temple in the Forum Boarium

1960 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. Strong ◽  
J. B. Ward-Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Definitive Solution ◽  
Restoration Work ◽  
The Temple ◽  
General Opinion ◽  
Ancient Remains

The name and date of the little round temple in the Forum Boarium at Rome (popularly known as the ‘Temple of Vesta’) are long-standing problems of Roman topography. Its identification is still quite uncertain. On the chronology, however, general opinion seems to have hardened and, for reasons which are discussed below, most scholars appear now to believe that the building is Augustan, rejecting the attractive theory of Altmann and Delbrueck that it was erected some time in the later second century B.C. The present article is not concerned at all with the problem of identification, nor does it attempt the full and detailed study of the design and construction without which a definitive solution of the problem of dating is clearly impossible. Its purpose is twofold: to draw attention to some significant features of the architectural design and decoration, and to illustrate and discuss some surviving fragments which can be shown to belong to the lost entablture, but which seem hitherto to have escaped attention.The foundations of the temple were first exposed by Valadier in the early nineteenth century, in the course of restoration work undertaken to free the building of later accretions and to consolidate the ancient remains.

Literature

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sverre Bagge
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Middle Ages

There is a continuous tradition of historical writing from the Middle Ages to the present day in all three of the Scandinavian kingdoms, as well as in Iceland, though admittedly it began later (not until the early fourteenth century) in Sweden than in the other countries. The works dating from the Middle Ages have already been discussed. Those of the Early Modern Period are of interest as evidence of learning and for an understanding of how “history” was viewed at the time, and also because they contain a number of documents from the Middle Ages whose originals have been lost. However, the beginning of modern scholarly historical writing is usually dated to the early nineteenth century, in Scandinavia as in the rest of Europe. The professionalization of history, which started in Germany, quickly spread to Scandinavia. Throughout Europe, this professionalization was related to a national revival that typically placed great emphasis on a nation’s medieval past....

Conjunctural poor and structural poor: some preliminary considerations on poverty, the life-cycle and economic crisis in early-nineteenth-century Italy

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Subacchi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Structural Poor

Cet article traite des concepts de la pauvreté (c.à.d. de la condition de ceux qui, faute de biens ou d'un capital, sont obligés de travailler pour gagner leur vie) et de l'indigence (qui est l'état de quiconque est dans l'impossibilité de pourvoir aux besoins de sa famille). Les nombreuses baisses et crises de l'économie préindustrielle et les privations au cours de la vie sont responsables de la détérioration périodique du niveau de vie des personnes dont la subsistance dépend uniquement de leur travail. A la suite de Gutton, auteur de La Société et les pauvres en Europe (XVI-XVII siècles) (Paris, 1974), ces personnes sont définies comme pauvres conjoncturaux d'une part, parce qu'ils sont périodiquement exposés à la chute en dessous de l'indigence. D'autre part, des circonstances individuelles telles qu'une maladie permanente et le grand âge vient à causer une pauvreté structurelle, acceptée ensuite comme une situation permanente. Le présent article examine les définitions de la pauvreté tant conjoncturale que structurelle au départ d'une étude d'un cas spécifique; il prend également en considération la mesure dans laquelle les dimensions de chacun des deux types de pauvreté sont modifiées par les restrictions au cours de la vie, par les fluctuations économiques et par les situations individuelles.

THE GREAT DEBATE AND THE ORIGINS OF SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW BANK
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
African History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Debate ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The fundamental preoccupation with race in later historical writing in South Africa has its origins in the Great Debate between liberals and their enemies in the early nineteenth century. Standard overviews of South African historiography date the emergence of racially structured histories to the second half of the nineteenth century. For Saunders, the making of the South African past and its thematic ordering in terms of race only began in the 1870s ‘when the first major historian [G. M. Theal] began to write his history’. Prior to Theal's monumental efforts, ‘only a few amateur historians had turned their hands to the writing of the history of particular areas or topics’. Likewise, in Smith's analysis, also published in 1988, the construction of South African history in terms of race is seen almost exclusively as the product of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In a very brief introductory section, Smith suggests that what little historical writing there was before the middle of the nineteenth century is scarcely to be taken seriously, and his study offers no more than a bare outline of historiographical developments before Theal and his heirs.

scholarly journals L’arbre de la Raison – La fabrique d’un motif pictural au début du XIXe siècle

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Zenon Mezinski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Extreme Form ◽  
Modern Landscape ◽  
Drawing Method ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Object Of Knowledge ◽  
Artistic Talent

The nineteenth century witnessed the rise of a specialized body of writing that ascribed a central place to the tree as object of knowledge and that contributed to the development of a pictorial motif that I call the “tree of Reason” (“l’arbre de la Raison”). Appearing in Europe in the early nineteenth century, the first “landscape lessons” aimed at beginner artists and amateurs rested on a new pedagogy that promised the reader and student quick results, regardless of their artistic talent. Their approach was based on an extreme form of rationalisation and simplification, which followed from the theoretical and aesthetic principles of Neoclassicism. Behind the word “landscape” (paysage) found in the titles of these successful manuals lay the motif of the tree, which constituted their main subject. This article begins with an examination of Principes raisonnés du paysage, published in 1804 by Nicolas-Alphonse Michel Mandevare, and analyzes the drawing method that it proposes. Regarded as the result of a construction, of an arrangement of its different parts, this “tree of Reason” highlights the end of a big artistic cycle, which was paradoxically to have little influence on the tenets of modern landscape that took hold in the 1830s. This rationalistic and reasoned practice thus ended in an impasse, in which both tree and landscape became petrified in a set of codified rules and references.

Shrine, Images, and Power: The Worship of Former Worthies in Early Nineteenth Century Suzhou

T oung Pao ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-195
Author(s):  
Seunghyun Han
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Similar Nature ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
State Elite ◽  
Building Activity ◽  
Xixe Siecle ◽  
Xixe Siècle

AbstractIn the 1820s, the literati of Suzhou embarked on a project to build a shrine devoted to the worship of local former worthies and engraved almost six hundred portraits of the latter on the shrine's inner walls. Since the locality already had a paired shrine of eminent officials and local worthies, as had become the case across the empire since the mid-Ming period, why did they need to create a shrine of a similar nature? What was the cultural significance of introducing visual representations of the worthies in the worship? By analyzing the multiple layers of meaning surrounding this shrine-building activity, the present study attempts to illuminate an aspect of the changing state-elite relations in the early nineteenth century. Au cours des années 1820 les lettrés de Suzhou s'engagèrent dans un projet de construction d'un sanctuaire dédié au culte des anciennes personnalités locales éminentes, sur les murs duquel furent gravés les portraits de près de six cents d'entre elles. Dans la mesure, où Suzhou possédait déjà deux sanctuaires, l'un pour les fonctionnaires éminents et l'autre pour les personnalités locales, comme c'était le cas partout dans l'Empire depuis le milieu des Ming, pourquoi fut-il jugé nécessaire d'en créer un autre de même nature? Que signifiait d'un point de vue culturel le fait d'introduire des représentations visuelles des personnalités en question dans les célébrations? En analysant les niveaux de sens multiples qui entourent cette activité de construction, le présent article s'efforce de mettre en lumière un aspect particulier du changement dans les relations entre l'État et les élites au début du xixe siècle.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

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