Auxiliary sciences of history
Scholarly disciplines aiding the evaluation and use of historical sources.
Auxiliary sciences of history are scholarly disciplines that assist in evaluating and using historical sources. Originally developed between the 16th and 19th centuries by antiquaries, these fields were once considered part of antiquarianism. With the rise of empirical source-based history championed by the Göttingen school and later Leopold von Ranke, they became part of the trained historian's skill set.
Examples
Auxiliary sciences of history include archaeology, which studies human activity through material culture, and archival science, the theory of creating and maintaining archives. Chorography involves describing or mapping regions and places, while chronology examines the sequence of past events. Cliometrics applies economic theory and mathematical methods to history. Codicology studies books as physical objects, and diplomatics analyzes historical documents textually.
Encyclopaedistics focuses on encyclopedias as sources of knowledge. Epigraphy studies ancient inscriptions, ethnography examines individual cultures, and filigranology investigates watermarks. Genealogy explores family relationships, historical geography studies geographic change over time, heraldry deals with armorial devices, and iconography analyzes images. Numismatics studies coins, onomastics proper names, palaeography historic handwriting, and paleoanthropology human evolution through fossils.
Phaleristics covers military orders and awards, philately postage stamps, and philology the language of historical sources. Prosopography investigates historical groups through collective study of lives. Sigillography studies seals, textology describes and edits historical texts, toponymy place names, uniformology uniforms, and vexillology flags. Several of these are sub-disciplines of major social sciences such as anthropology, linguistics, and sociology.
Some fields are interdisciplinary, like historical archaeography, which combines codicological, textological, and palaeographical aspects of ancient manuscripts and early printed materials.
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