Nearly a century after the beginnings of German national historiography at the court of Maximilian the French began to turn their attention to the analysis and collection of the sources of their national history. This move ment may conveniently be dated from the pub lication of the of Francois Flot. man in 1574. Other early examples of this tendency were the 'Antiquites gauloises et francoises) of Claude Fauchet (1579); the 'Annales Francorum> of Pierre Pithou (1588); the 'Recherches de la France) of Etienne Pas quier (1611), and the material on the Crusades in the 'Gesta Dei per Francos' of Jacques Bongars (1611-17). The true beginning of the critical collection of sources was marked by the work of Andre Duchesne (1584-1640) in compiling the 'Historite Normannorum scrip tores antiqui> (1619) and the 'Historic; Fran corum scriptores coaetanei' (1636f.) ; the ugeneologiesp and the 'Gallia christiana) of the brothers Sainte-Marthe (1572-1650, 1655) ; the critical editions of Villehardouin and Jomville by Charles du Fresne du Cange (1610-88) ; and the 'Capitularia regnum Francorum> of Etienne Baluze (1630-1718). During the last half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th this work of collecting sources was car ried on almost entirely by the scholarly Bene dictine monks of the Congregation of Saint Maur at Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris, which was founded between 1618 and 1630 by Doms Martin Tesniere and Gregoire Tarisse, and whose leader in historical scholarship was the great Jean Mabillon (1632-1707). Only a few of their more notable collections can he mentioned here. Dom Thierry Ruinart (1657 1709) prepared critical editions of Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius; Dom Edmond Mar tene (1654-1739) the (Thesarus novus anecdo torum veterum scriptores> and the scriptorum et monumentorum amplissima col ; Dom Bernard Montfaucon (1655 1741) 'Les Monuments de la monarchic fran Dam Martin Bouquet (1685-1754) the famous 'Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptores,> which is still being continued by modern scholars under the title of the 'Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France ;' and Dom Antoine Rivet de la Grange (1683-1749), aided by Duclou, Poncet and Colomb, began that unique 'Histoire litteraire de la which was completed by the French Institute at the very close of the last century. The Mau rists also turned their attention to the history of the French provinces and gathered many valu able collections, the most famous of which was the 'Histoire generale de Languedoc) of Doms Vaisette and Vic (1730-49), recently revised by Molinier. In the latter part of the 18th century the laymen again came to the front, the most notable center of their activity being the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, which had been founded by Colbert in 1663. The most valuable product of their labors was the great collection of 'Ordonnances des rois de France' by J. de Lauriere, Denis Secousse and L. G. de Brequigny (1714-1794). They also continued the 'Histoire litteraire) and the 'Gal lia A further stimulus came when P. C. F. Daunou was appointed national archi vist by Napoleon. He brought many foreign ar chives to Paris and also continued the work on the 'Histoire litteraire) and the other great Benedictine collections. The first monumental collection of sources produced in the 19th cen tury was the voluminous 'Collection de memoires relatifs a l'histoire de France) by Petitot and Monmerque in one hundred and thirty volumes (1819-29). What Germany owes to Stein for the gathering of the sources of German national history, France owes to Guizot, and more, for the latter not only organized the movement for the scientific work in collecting and editing the sources, but also was a histor ical scholar of the first order who contributed most valuable works from his own pen. Be fore he left historical writing for the field of political activity he had published a collection of thirty volumes bearing the same title as that of Petitot. In 1834 he organized the Societe de l'histoire de France, which was first presided over by Barante and has since included in its membership the most famous historians of France. The 'Ouvrages publics) of this society have amounted to over three hundred and fifty well edited volumes of source material. Even more important was Guizot's initiative in induc ing Louis Philippe to appoint a sub-committee of the ministry of public education which was to devote itself to publishing the hitherto un published source material of French history. In the next year their work began to appear in the monumental series of the 'Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoire de France,) of which about three hundred and thirty volumes have thus far been published. The early edi torial associates of Guizot in this enterprise were Mignet, Thierry, Guerard and Raynouard. With the foundation of the Societe de l'Ecole des Chartes in 1829 the provision of competent editors was henceforth assured through the es tablishment of the world's greatest historical institute for the training of students in the use of documents — L'Ecole des Chartes. The 'Documents are the official French counterpart of the German Monumenta' and are even more valuable in that they are confined entirely to the presentation of material never before published. The French have also ad vanced a step beyond any other nation in pro viding great collections of sources for a study of their history in modern times. This has been due primarily to the fact that no other Euro pean state has possessed a national event or movement in modern times at all comparable in picturesque or romantic interest to the French Revolution. Most of the great French collec tions of sources of modern history relate to some phase of the Revolution. In 1903 the socialist historian and statesman, Jaures, succeeded in inducing the government to establish a commit tee of the ministry of public instruction to su pervise the publication of the unpublished docu ments dealing with the economic history of the French Revolution. This work has been car ried on by the leading French historians, and the 'Collection de documents inedits sur l'his toire economique de la Revolution Francaise> has been appearing in successive volumes since 1905. The municipal government of Paris has been publishing the 'Collection de documents relatifs 5. l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revo lution Francaise> since 1888. In addition to these public collections, many collections of sources dealing with special phases of the Revo lution have been made by enterprising scholars, among whom Aulard and his pupils have been most active.
The French also vied with the Germans in the production of nationalistic historical narra tive. The publication of Chateaubriand's 'Genius of Christianity' in 1802 gave a lustre and romantic touch to the French past in the middle ages comparable to the effect produced in Germany by Spittler and Johannes Muller. Fauriel anticipated Coulanges and Jullian in his history of Gaul by contending for the superior ity of Celtic to Frankish culture in the forma tion of medieval civilization. Michaud de scribed the glories of the French in the period of the Crusades. Raynouard drew a vivid pic ture of the troubadours and proclaimed the supremacy of French among the Romance lan Fagniez and Cheruel ana lyzed with both critical erudition and patriotic pride the centralization of the French monarchy by the great statesmen of the 17th cen tury. Lamartine, in a work which rivalled Carlyle in the field of literature and was equally unscientific as history, set forth with fervid ad miration the glories of the French Revolution, and especially the exploits of the Girondists. Mignet, the most scholarly French historian in the first half of the 19th century, made an attack on the Bourbon Restoration by rep resenting the French Revolution as the neces sary and inevitable outgrowth of the tend encies of the age and as the dawn of a new and better era in the history of the world. Thiers, while critical of the empire, praised the first consul as the saviour of France and of European civilization. Napoleon was defended in his imperial splendor by Masson, Vandal and Levy; Vandal representing him as peace-loving and goaded to war by English jealousy, and Levy presenting a superhuman and faultless personality. Thureau-Dangin, while deploring its popular origin, appeared as the historical apologist of the "July Monarchy." La Gorce dealt with the "Second Empire" as an apologist of monarchy and clericalism, if not of the per sonality of Napoleon III. 011ivier dwelt with pride upon the liberal tendencies of the last decade of the Empire, and Hanotaux, in one of the finest products of national historiog raphy in France, has described and defended the establishment of the "Third Republic." Nor was France lacking in general histories written from the national point of view. Early in the 19th century Sismondi produced the first de tailed and complete history of France. It was written from the standpoint of an ardent lib eral who castigated kings and bishops and landed the liberal tendencies in the communes. But Sismondi was a Genevan and to some ex tent a representative of the mild rationalism of Rousseau, and his work was not calculated to arouse intense patriotic enthusiasm. Much dif ferent, except in its liberalism, was the brilliant work of Michelet, which was not only a great contribution to French literature but to the stimulation of patriotic pride, especially on the part of liberal Frenchmen. Henri Martin's history of France was less brilliantly written than Michelet's, but rested on sounder scholar ship and for a half century has remained the popular national history of France on account of its logical arrangement, lucid presentation and its central theme of the progressive growth of French national unity. The great co-oper ative work edited by Lavisse belongs to the field of erudite and critical rather than nationalistic historiography. French nationalism was greatly stimulated by the sting of the defeat and injus tices of 1870. While the scholarly French his.
torians, such as Gorce and Sorel, maintained an impartiality in treating of the war of 1870, which put to shame the fawning apology of Sybel, there was a great outburst of nationalis tic ardor on the part of the "super-patriots) their countrymen. These tendencies To= expression, above all, in the fiery speeches, poetry and pamphlets of Paul Derou lede, the chief of the uRavanchards," and in the brilliant polemics and eulogies of his ad mirer, that ardent Gallican and head of the League of Patriots, Maurice Barris, whose study of French history has convinced him that "the French make war as a religious duty. They were the first to formulate the idea of a Holy War. It is not in France that wars are entered upon for the sake of spoil, but as a champion in the cause of God, as a knight upholding jus tice." England did not begin any systematic collec tion of the sources of its national history until the beginning of the 19th century. In the year 1800 the Record Commission was created, but no real historian was connected with its labors until Sir James Mackintosh was appointed in 1825. In 1830 Harris Nicolas called attention to the deplorable condition of the "sources" in England and his criticism led to the creation of a new and more active and critical committee of the Record Commission. A product of this improvement was the edition of the Parliamen tary Writs by No systematic activity in the collection of sources began until after the middle of the century. At this time, William Stubbs, the greatest of English medievalists before Maitland and the Anglicized Russian, Vinogradoff, vigorously criticized the work of the Record Commission. Shortly afterwards, in 1857, Lord Romilly, the Keeper of the Rolls, was able to secure an appropriation from the government to publish the sources of English medieval history and the general oversight of the project was conferred upon Duffus Hardy, a careful, if not brilliant, scholar. The work of editing these sources has been carried on by a number of English medievalists, among them Brewer, Gairdner, Canon Robertson, Giles and Dimocic, but far the greatest figure was the English Waitz, Bishop William Stubbs (1825-1901). For more than a quarter of a century after 1863 he gave much of his time to this work. This collection, which was finished in 1896 in two hundred and forty-four volumes, is known as the 'Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages' ('Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores) or, more briefly, as the 'Rolls Series) from the fact of its publication by the Master of the Rolls. It is the official British analogue of the 'Monumenta' and the 'Docu ments inedits.' Less pretentious collections have been provided by the Camden Society and the Early English Texts Society. There should also be mentioned the great collection of the sources of English legal history provided by the Selden Society, and the publication of the manuscript records of important voyages and explorations by the Hakluyt Society.