LEOPOLD VON RANKE. 547 



schicbtsschreiber," is unfortunately omitted. In tbis critique, Ranke 

 examined the literary foundations of early modern bistory. He con- 

 sidered witb great care tbe work of Macbiavelli and Guicciardini, 

 two representative Italian bistorians; also two German bistorians ; and 

 one Spauisb and one Frencb authority. In eacb case Ranke's object 

 was to discover bow far tbe writer's statements were original and 

 trustworthy. Ranke was one of tbe first scholars to vindicate the 

 character of Macbiavelli. On tbe other band, he was the first to 

 expose Guicciardini, whose history was shown to have no solid foun- 

 dations and to be written for romantic effect. 



In bis own narrative Ranke begins by sketching, in a few bold and 

 striking lines, tbe great facts which mark the essential unity of tbe 

 Latin and Teutonic nations ; on the one hand, the Italian, Frencb, 

 and Spanish, and on the other, the German, English, and Scandina- 

 vian. Ranke shows that these six peoples have all passed through 

 tbe same phases of internal history, and have all been borne along by 

 tbe same great current of external exj^erience. Tbe chief tributaries 

 of European bistory are seen to flow together into the great modern 

 stream which issues in a new world. Three connected events are 

 pointed out: 1. the migrations; 2. tbe Crusades, begun by tbe Nor- 

 mans, who ended tbe Teutonic invasion of Italy ; and 3. the coloniza- 

 tion of new countries, a movement still in progress, but sprung from 

 crusading enterprise. These three great facts, says Ranke, connect 

 both tbe times and the peoples. " They are, if I may so speak, three 

 great respirations of this incomparable union." Another expression 

 of the essential unity of Latin and Teutonic nations Ranke saw in the 

 Spanish monarchy of the House of Hapsburg, against which France 

 revolted at tbe time Northern Europe threw off the yoke of tbe 

 Papacy. Tbe resultant struggles constitute the chief interest of mod- 

 ern bistory. Ranke's introductory work covers the brief period from 

 1494 to 1514. Modern political bistory is shown to begin with the 

 Frencb invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. In the resultant wars, 

 the leagues and counter leagues, which ended in tbe expulsion of the 

 French from Italy, as they were afterward expelled from Germany, 

 one can almost see prefigured the modern struggle of European states. 

 It was no chance which led Leopold von Ranke, after the German 

 War for Liberation, to turn back to the Italian beginnings of this long 

 contest for supremacy. 



Ranke's first book was an immediate success. Scholars recognized 

 at once that the author was a Weltgeist, discerning vast unities where 

 other men bad seen only infinite particulars. Through the influence 



