RANKE, LEOPOLD VON ( 795-1886) , German historian, was born on Dec. 20 or 21, 1795, at Wiehe, in Thuringia. He studied classics and theology at Halle and Berlin. In 1818 he began to teach history in a school at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, thereby entering the service of the Prussian Government.
With the scholar's dislike of textbooks, he rapidly acquired a thorough knowledge of the ancient historians, quickly passed on to mediaeval times, and determined to make a study of universal history. At Frankfort he wrote his first work, Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Volker (1824), which included a critical dissertation on the historians of this period (Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber), exposing the untrust worthiness of much traditional history. This dissertation was as important for modern history as the critical work of Niebuhr had been in ancient history. A copy of the book was sent to the Prussian minister of education, K. A. Kamptz, and Ranke was appointed supernumerary professor in the University of Berlin, and began his 5o years' connection with the university. His Ffirsten und Volker von Sideuropa im 16 and 17 Jahrhundert (A27) was based on the study of ms. records in the Berlin library. In later editions the book was called Die Osmanen und die span ische Monarchie. The Prussian Government now provided him with means to prosecute his researches abroad. He visited Vienna, where the friendship of Gentz and the protection of Metternich opened to him the Venetian archives, of which many were pre served in that city—then a virgin field. He wrote a short book on Die serbische Revolution (1829), afterwards expanded into Serbian und die Tiirkei im 19 Jahrhundert (1879), from material supplied to him by Wuk Stephanovich, a Serbian who had himself been witness of the scenes he related. He spent three years (1828-31) in Italy. The recommendations of Metternich opened to him almost every library except the Vatican.
For a time Ranke was editor of a periodical in which Friedrich Perthes sought to defend the Prussian Government against the democratic press. He failed; men desired not the scientific treat ment of politics, but satire and invective. He earned the hatred
and suspicion of the liberals and did not satisfy the Prussian con servatives, and after four years theHistorisch-Politische Zeitschrift came to an end. Two-thirds of the matter had been contributed by the editor, and the two stout volumes in which the numbers were collected contained the best political thought which had for long appeared in Germany. For Ranke the failure was not to be regretted ; the rest of his life was to be wholly devoted to history proper. Die romischen Piipste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (3 vols., 1834-36, and many other editions), in form, as in matter, the greatest of his works, contains the results of his studies in Italy. The English translation by Mrs.
Austin was the occasion of one of Macaulay's most brilliant essays. Before it was completed Ranke had already begun the researches for the second of his masterpieces, his Deutsche Ge schichte int Zeitalter der Reformation a necessary pendant to his book on the popes. In 1837 he became full pro fessor at Berlin; in 1841 Frederick William IV. appointed him Prussian historiographer. In this capacity he wrote the Neun Bucher preussischer Geschichte (1847-48), a work which makes severe demands on the attention of the reader—he is the "Dryasdust" of Carlyle's Frederick; but in it he laid the foun dation for the modern appreciation of the founders of the Prus sian State. The nine books were subsequently expanded to 12 (Leipzig, 1874). His Franzosische Geschichte, vornehmlich im 16 und 17 Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1852-61) was followed by his Englische Geschichte, vornehmlich im 16 und 17 Jahrhun dert (1859-68). This, the longest of his works, lacked something of the freshness of his earlier books ; he was over 7o when it was completed, and he was never quite at home in dealing with the foundations of English public life. In his 81st year he began to write the W eltgeschichte (9 vols., Leipzig, 1883-88). Drawing on the knowledge accumulated during 6o years, he had brought it down to the end of the 15th century before his death in Berlin on May 23,1886.