RANKE, LEOl'OLD VON (1795-1886). A cele brated German historian, who, with Niebuhr, was the founder of the modern historical school. He was born at \Viehe. in Thuringia. At the age of eighteen he went to the University of Leipzig, he studied theology and the classics. In ISIS be became an instructor in the gymnasium at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. His field was classical literature, and in his systematic reading of the an cient historians he was aroused to the possibility of attaching to modern history that interest and vitality, the lack of which in most writers bad repelled him from the subject. When his studies had carried him by gradual chronological pro gression up to the fifteenth century, Ranke had come to realize his mission, and thenceforth he turned to history as his life work. He first pub lished the Geschichte der romanischen "Ind gcr inanischen Volker von 1494-1535 (1824). He was in 1825 appointed professor extraordinary at the University of Berlin, and entered upon a study of the Venetian Relations, which gave him an insight into the historical value of diplomatic history, the use of which became one of the marked characteristics of his work. The result of these studies was his Fiirsten and 161ker von Siideuropa im 16. and 17. Jahrhundcrt (1827). Be next received a commission from the Prussian Government to go to Venice and investigate the archives there, and in 1834-37 he published Die romischen Piipste. Hire Kirche und ila• Stoat im 16. and 17. Jahrhundert (10th ed. 1900, under the title Die comischen Papste in den letzten vier Jahrhunderten), a work which attracted the at tention of the entire civilized world. In 1834 he was made a full professor at Berlin. Ranke's great studies of the Reformation period in Ger many, France, England, and Italy all form parts of one related whole. These works are the
most notable and important of Ranke's volu minous contributions to historical literature and form a unique study of the period. Ranke be came historiographer of Prussia in 1841. and was the recipient of many honors in the course of his long life. He retired from his chair in Berlin in 1871, but in ISSO began the pub lication of a universal history. The volumes of the lleltgeschichte published before his death carry the account to the eleventh century. Two additional volumes were edited by his assistants after his death. The whole was published in nine volumes (1881-88). All his works are of great value to students of history. Among them are: Die serbische Revolution (1829), re published as Scrbien und die Tiirkei im 19. Jahr hundert (1879) ; Die Verschwurung gegen Fen edig, 1018 (1831) ; Deutsche Gcschichtc im Zeit alter der Reformation (1839-47) ; Franz6sische Geschichtc, vornehmlich fm 16. and 17. Jahr hundert (1852-61) ; Eng/ischc Gcschichtc im 16. and 17. Jahrhundcrt (1859-67) ; Zur deutsche(' Gcschichte vow Religionsfrieden Lis zum dreis sigjahrigen Kricge (1868) ; Geschichtc steins (1869) ; Zur Geschichte Dcutschlands and Frankreichs int 19. Jahrhundert (1887). His collected works are published in 54 volumes, covering the whole range of modern European history. He died in Berlin. Consult his auto biography. Zur eigenen Lebensgeschichte, edited by Dove (Leipzig, 1890), vole. liii.-liv. of the col lected works; Guglia, Leopold con Lcbcn and Werke (1893) ; L'Allentagne nourelle ct ses historiens. Niebuhr, Rankc, Mont scn, Sybcl, Treitschkc (Paris, 1899).