Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary (from
The
Today the term "antiquarian" is often used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow focus on factual historical trivia, to the exclusion of a sense of historical context or process. Few today would describe themselves as "antiquaries", but some institutions such as the Society of Antiquaries of London (founded in 1707) retain their historic names. The term "antiquarian bookseller" remains current for dealers in more expensive old books.
History
Antiquarianism in ancient China
During the Song dynasty (960–1279), the scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) analyzed alleged ancient artifacts bearing archaic inscriptions in bronze and stone, which he preserved in a collection of some 400 rubbings.[1] Patricia Ebrey writes that Ouyang pioneered early ideas in epigraphy.[2]
The Kaogutu (考古圖) or "Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity" (preface dated 1092) compiled by Lü Dalin (呂大臨) (1046–1092) is one of the oldest known catalogues to systematically describe and classify ancient artifacts which were unearthed.[3] Another catalogue was the Chong xiu Xuanhe bogutu (重修宣和博古圖) or "Revised Illustrated Catalogue of Xuanhe Profoundly Learned Antiquity" (compiled from 1111 to 1125), commissioned by Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125), and also featured illustrations of some 840 vessels and rubbings.[1][3]
Interests in antiquarian studies of ancient inscriptions and artifacts waned after the Song dynasty, but were revived by early
Antiquarianism in ancient Rome
In
Major antiquarian
Medieval and early modern antiquarianism
Despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the
The importance placed on
Many early modern antiquaries were also chorographers: that is to say, they recorded landscapes and monuments within regional or national descriptions. In England, some of the most important of these took the form of county histories.
In the context of the 17th-century
19th–21st centuries
By the end of the 19th century, antiquarianism had diverged into a number of more specialized academic disciplines including archaeology, art history, numismatics, sigillography, philology, literary studies and diplomatics. Antiquaries had always attracted a degree of ridicule (see below), and since the mid-19th century the term has tended to be used most commonly in negative or derogatory contexts. Nevertheless, many practising antiquaries continue to claim the title with pride. In recent years, in a scholarly environment in which interdisciplinarity is increasingly encouraged, many of the established antiquarian societies (see below) have found new roles as facilitators for collaboration between specialists.
Terminological distinctions
Antiquaries and antiquarians
"Antiquary" was the usual term in English from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries to describe a person interested in antiquities (the word "antiquarian" being generally found only in an adjectival sense).[10] From the second half of the 18th century, however, "antiquarian" began to be used more widely as a noun,[11] and today both forms are equally acceptable.
Antiquaries and historians
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, a clear distinction was perceived to exist between the interests and activities of the antiquary and the
... probably had more in common with the professional historian of the twenty-first century, in terms of methodology, approach to sources and the struggle to reconcile erudition with style, than did the authors of the grand narratives of national history.[17]
Antiquarians, antiquarian books and antiques
In many European languages, the word antiquarian (or its equivalent) has shifted in modern times to refer to a person who either trades in or collects rare and ancient
Pejorative associations
Antiquaries often appeared to possess an unwholesome interest in death, decay, and the unfashionable, while their focus on obscure and arcane details meant that they seemed to lack an awareness both of the realities and practicalities of modern life, and of the wider currents of history. For all these reasons they frequently became objects of ridicule.[18][19][20]
The antiquary was satirised in
The
The antiquaries will be as ridiculous as they used to be; and since it is impossible to infuse taste into them, they will be as dry and dull as their predecessors. One may revive what perished, but it will perish again, if more life is not breathed into it than it enjoyed originally. Facts, dates and names will never please the multitude, unless there is some style and manner to recommend them, and unless some novelty is struck out from their appearance. The best merit of the Society lies in their prints; for their volumes, no mortal will ever touch them but an antiquary. Their Saxon and Danish discoveries are not worth more than monuments of the
Hottentots; and for Roman remains in Britain, they are upon a foot with what ideas we should get of Inigo Jones, if somebody was to publish views of huts and houses that our officers run up at Senegal and Goree. Bishop Lyttelton used to torment me with barrows and Roman camps, and I would as soon have attended to the turf graves in our churchyards. I have no curiosity to know how awkward and clumsy men have been in the dawn of arts or in their decay.[23]
In his essay "On the Uses and Abuses of History for Life" from his Untimely Meditations,
C. R. Cheney, writing in 1956, observed that "[a]t the present day we have reached such a pass that the word 'antiquary' is not always held in high esteem, while 'antiquarianism' is almost a term of abuse".[24] Arnaldo Momigliano in 1990 defined an antiquarian as "the type of man who is interested in historical facts without being interested in history".[25] Professional historians still often use the term "antiquarian" in a pejorative sense, to refer to historical studies which seem concerned only to place on record trivial or inconsequential facts, and which fail to consider the wider implications of these, or to formulate any kind of argument. The term is also sometimes applied to the activities of amateur historians such as historical reenactors, who may have a meticulous approach to reconstructing the costumes or material culture of past eras, but who are perceived to lack much understanding of the cultural values and historical contexts of the periods in question.
Antiquarian societies
London societies
A
In 1707 a number of English antiquaries began to hold regular meetings for the discussion of their hobby and in 1717 the
Other notable societies
- The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was founded in 1780 and had the management of a large national antiquarian museum in Edinburgh.[26]
- The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, the oldest provincial antiquarian society in England, was founded in 1813.
- In Ireland a society was founded in 1849 called the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, holding its meetings at Kilkenny. In 1869 its name was changed to the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, and in 1890 to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, its office being transferred to Dublin.[26]
- In France the Société des Antiquaires de France was formed in 1813 by the reconstruction of the Acadêmie Celtique, which had existed since 1804.[26]
- The American Antiquarian Society was founded in 1812, with its headquarters at Worcester, Massachusetts.[26] In modern times, its library has grown to over 4 million items,[27] and as an institution it is internationally recognized as a repository and research library for early (pre-1876) American printed materials.
- In Denmark, the Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab (also known as La Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord or the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries) was founded at Copenhagen in 1825.
- In Germany the Gesamtverein der Deutschen Geschichts- und Altertumsvereine was founded in 1852.[26]
In addition, a number of local historical and archaeological societies have adopted the word "antiquarian" in their titles. These have included the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, founded in 1840; the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, founded in 1883; the Clifton Antiquarian Club, founded in Bristol in 1884; the Orkney Antiquarian Society, founded in 1922; and the Plymouth Antiquarian Society, founded in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1919.
Notable antiquarians
See also
- Historian
- Collector
- Connoisseur
- Epigraphy
- Sigillography
- Nomenclature
- Typology (archaeology)
- Renaissance humanism
- English county histories
- Auxiliary sciences of history
- The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott
- Cabinet of curiosities
References
- ^ ISBN 0-8248-2820-8. p. 95.
- ISBN 0-521-66991-X, p. 148.
- ^ ISBN 0-521-84076-7. p. 74.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 7.3.7: cited also in the Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 1132, entry on monumentum, as an example of meaning 4b, "recorded tradition."
- ^ At LacusCurtius, Bill Thayer presents an edition of the Roman Questions Archived 8 January 2023 at the Wayback Machine based on the Loeb Classical Library translation. Thayer's edition can be browsed question-by-question in tabulated form, with direct links to individual topics.
- T.P. Wiseman, Clio's Cosmetics (Bristol: Phoenix Press, 2003, originally published 1979 by Leicester University Press), pp. 15–15, 45 et passim; and A Companion to Latin Literature, edited by Stephen Harrison (Blackwell, 2005), pp. 37–38, 64, 77, 229, 242–244 et passim.
- ISBN 1-84472-063-2.
- ^ Arnaldo Momigliano, "Ancient History and the Antiquarian," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 13 (1950), p. 289.
- ^ a b Levine, Battle of the Books.
- OEDuses of "Antiquary. 3" 1586 and 1602.
- OED"Antiquarian" as noun, first uses 1610, then 1778
- ^ Woolf, "Erudition and the Idea of History".
- ^ Levine, Humanism and History, pp. 54–72.
- ^ Levine, Amateur and Professional, pp. 28–30, 80–81.
- ^ Broadway, "No Historie So Meete", p. 4.
- ISBN 0-19-812348-5.
- ^ Sweet, Antiquaries, p. xiv.
- ^ B.S. Allen, Tides in English Taste (1619–1800), 2 vols (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937), vol. 2, pp. 87–92.
- ^ Brown, Hobby-Horsical Antiquary, esp. pp. 13–17.
- ^ Sweet, Antiquaries, pp. xiii, 4–5.
- ^ John Earle, "An Antiquarie", in Micro-cosmographie (London, 1628), sigs [B8]v-C3v.
- ^ B.E. (1699). A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew. London. p. 16.
- ^ Quoted in Martin Myrone, "The Society and Antiquaries and the graphic arts: George Vertue and his legacy", in Pearce 2007, p. 99.
- ^ C.R. Cheney, "Introduction", in Levi Fox (ed.), English Historical Scholarship in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London, 1956), p. 4.
- ^ Momigliano 1990, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d e f g public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antiquary". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 134. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ "Worcester's best kept secret: The American Antiquarian Society belongs to everyone | Worcester MagWorcester Mag". Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014. Goslow, B. (2014, January 30). Worcester’s best kept secret: The American Antiquarian Society belongs to everyone. Worcester Magazine.
Bibliography
- Anderson, Benjamin; Rojas, Felipe, eds. (2017). Antiquarianisms: contact, conflict, comparison. Joukowsky Institute publication. Vol. 8. Oxford: Oxford Books. ISBN 9781785706844.
- Broadway, Jan (2006). "No Historie So Meete": gentry culture and the development of local history in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7294-9.
- Brown, I. G. (1980). The Hobby-Horsical Antiquary: a Scottish character, 1640–1830. Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland. ISBN 0-902220-38-1.
- Fox, Levi, ed. (1956). English Historical Scholarship in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. London: Dugdale Society and Oxford University Press.
- S2CID 162807608.
- Kendrick, T. D. (1950). British Antiquity. London: Methuen.
- Levine, J. M. (1987). Humanism and History: origins of modern English historiography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801418853.
- Levine, J. M. (1991). The Battle of the Books: history and literature in the Augustan age. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801425379.
- Levine, Philippa (1986). The Amateur and the Professional: antiquarians, historians and archaeologists in Victorian England, 1838–1886. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30635-3.
- Mendyk, S. A. E. (1989). "Speculum Britanniae": regional study, antiquarianism and science in Britain to 1700. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- ISBN 0-300-08252-5.
- ISBN 9780801453700.
- S2CID 164918925.
- ISBN 0520068904.
- Parry, Graham (1995). The Trophies of Time: English antiquarians of the seventeenth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198129629.
- Pearce, Susan, ed. (2007). Visions of Antiquity: The Society of Antiquaries of London 1707–2007. London: Society of Antiquaries.
- ISBN 0852243030.
- Stenhouse, William (2005). Reading Inscriptions and Writing Ancient History: historical scholarship in the late Renaissance. London: Institute of Classical Studies, University of London School of Advanced Study. ISBN 0-900587-98-9.
- Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2022). Fukuoka, Maki (ed.). Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan: the archaeology of things in the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. ISBN 9781606067420.
- Sweet, Rosemary (2004). Antiquaries: the discovery of the past in eighteenth-century Britain. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN 1-85285-309-3.
- Vine, Angus (2010). In Defiance of Time: antiquarian writing in early modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956619-8.
- ISBN 9781597403771.
- S2CID 164042832.
- ISBN 0-19-925778-7.