Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/47

The Historical Point of View 1 1 important books and articles relating to the history of their own country from the time of Tacitus to the present day. A still better and more extensive work by Molinier and others is in course of publication for the history of France. 1 Of course the history both of France and of Germany is so closely associated with that of other European countries that the above-mentioned guides are very valuable for the student of general Euro- pean affairs. A similar collection of titles has been prepared by Professor Charles Gross for England. 2 After discovering the sources it is essential to deter- Criticism of mine their character and reliability. There are special t treatises upon this important subject. 3 The best and most generally useful is perhaps Wattenbach's Histori- cal Sources for Germany during the Middle Ages, 4 in which the various writers and their works are thoroughly discussed. Molinier gives many useful hints in his great bibliography referred to above. A discussion of the his- torical writers of the Middle Ages is given in Early Chroniclers of Europe? I know of no other work of the kind available in English except that of Flint, who, in his interesting History of the Philosophy of History? 1 Les sources de Vhistoire de France, des origines aux guerres d* Italic (7494); to be continued to 1815 5 vols., Paris, 1901 sqq., 5 fr. a volume. 2 Sources of English. History, Longmans, 1901, $5.00. 3 For brief accounts of the results of modern criticism of the sources see the Introduction to Henderson's History of Germany in the Middle Ages, and Bury's Introduction to his edition of Gibbon, pp. 45 sqq. 4 Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des ijten Jahrhundert, 2 vols., 6th ed., 1893-1894, M. 20. (Vol. I of a 7th edition appeared in 1904.) 5 England by Gairdner, France by Masson, and Italy by Balzani. Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 3 vols., London, 1883-1888. 6 Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894, $4.00.