R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink en de moderne geschiedwetenschap - Filologie, geschiedenis, archief

Abstract

The introduction of philological method and its contribution to the creation of modern historiography is associated most commonly with Leopold von Ranke. The ‘Dutch Ranke’ , Robert Fruin, was trained in classical philology, like his German counterpart. But it was Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink (1810-65) who first introduced the methods of critical philology into Dutch historiography. As a young scholar, he used the approaches developed in German classical philology in order to study Dutch seventeenth century literature. In exile, he became a scholar of political history, mainly of the Dutch Revolt. Primary sources were his favoured material; a precise source criticism was his method. This made him a frequent visitor to archives throughout Europe, and after returning to his fatherland he became the archivist that modernized standards of record-keeping in the Dutch archives. Fruin and Bakhuizen seem to have exaggerated the results of their philological method: they produced only brilliant exercises in source criticism, never grand narratives.