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It was noticeable in the late Middle Ages and clearly marked in modern times that the centre of gravity of a historian's interest was moving from the narration itself toward the foundations of that narration. The result was a magnificent development of a historian's critical techniques. The increasing subtlety of those techniques are the signum spe-cificum of a historian's good work, and are treated, by some historians interested in methodology (e.g., L. E. Halkin), as the criterion of the scientific nature of historical research even today, when the standards of historical research have risen to a higher level and good research techniques are taken for granted. This criterion, which minimized the issue of past events, was-in the light of the critical pattern of research-made richer by the requirement that historical narratives be not only true, but also given to theory (philosophy). This requirement was being advanced mainly by philosophers and theorists of science, although prominent historians also would not shun general considerations.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-1123-5_7

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