The Theory Of The Renaissance Florence School

Florence is the origin of the Renaissance, and the cradle of the western modern history. Within only more than100years from the later14th century to the mid of16th century, many outstanding historians emerged prominently. Most of the Florence historians had not only classic academic accomplishment, but also scholar and politician cultivation; they inherited the brilliant heritage of ancient historiography, especially that of the ancient Rome, and integrated with Florence city-state development; their works reflected great attention towards mundane life, especially the civic life. All these characteristics make Florence historians become significant representative in the Renaissance, and meanwhile, historiography with unique characteristics and lively thought school style came into being. This article takes Florence school as a case study, centers on the its development process and investigates its origin, development and transformation, and finally comes to a conclusion of its position in the western historiography, and reveals the characteristics of historiography at the same time from a side view.This article constitutes of introduction, main body and conclusion. In the introduction part, it mainly elaborates the purpose and conception of the topic, research review in home and abroad and the writing thought of the paper. The body of the paper constitutes of two parts and six chapters.In the first article of the body, I discuss the historiography of Florence school from diachronic aspect. The first chapter discuss the historical background of Florence school, and focuses on the conditions of Florence school. The second and third chapter concentrate on representative historians and their characters of writing.In the later half, I research Florence historians from historical thought aspect. The fourth chapter mainly studies three main properties--istory, politics and rhetoric of Florence historiography. The fifth chapter investigates its view of destiny and mainly focuses on virtue (Virtu), fortune (Fortuna) and their relationships, analyse the Florence historian’s emphasize on people’s role. The sixth chapter discusses Florence school’s heritage and innovation towards classical and middle age’s historiography.The conclusion part places Florence school into the long river of western historiography, discuss their contributions, and points out its position and influence in it.