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Charles-Victor Langlois

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Charles-Victor Langlois

Charles-Victor Langlois (May 26, 1863, in Rouen – June 25, 1929, in Paris) was a French historian, archivist and paleographer, who specialized in the study of the Middle Ages and was a lecturer at the Sorbonne, where he taught paleography, bibliography, and the history of the Middle Ages.[1]

Langlois attended the École Nationale des Chartes and earned a doctorate in history in 1887. He taught at the University of Douai before moving to the Sorbonne. He was director of the National Archives of France from 1913 to 1929. Langlois was a leader in use of the historical method, which taught a scientific form of studying history. His "Manual of Historical Bibliography" was a fundamental manual on how bibliographic methods, which went along with his studies of the historical method.

Introduction aux études historiques

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See also: Charles Seignobos

His 1898 work Introduction aux études historiques, written with Charles Seignobos, is considered one of the first comprehensive manuals discussing the use of scientific techniques in historical research.[2] The "Introduction to the Study of History" takes a very detailed view at finding a way to make history as accurate of a study as the sciences. The basis of their method is the all history comes from facts retrieved from first hand documents. These facts are then viewed by the historian from many different perspectives, allowing for an unbiased approach at history. By using methods such as external and internal criticism, the historian is able to see both the reader's and author's perspective on a piece of history. In order to get a completely accurate history, these facts must be sorted into categories into groups to allow for easy research. To both of these men, the goal of history was to make it a learnable subject for anyone so that it may be passed down.[3]

To emphasize the importance of primary sources, Seignobos and Langlois began their handbook with the now well-known maxim, "History is made with documents."[4][5]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ "Charles-Victor Langlois | French scholar". 22 May 2024.
  2. ^ Seeing History | Langlois et Seignobos Archived April 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ The Project Gutenberg | The Introduction to the Study of History
  4. ^ den Boer, Pim (14 July 2014). History as a Profession: The Study of History in France, 1818-1914. Princeton University Press. pp. 298–. ISBN 978-1-4008-6484-3. OCLC 1013963347.  'History is made with documents.' 
  5. ^ Langlois, Charles Victor (1898). Introduction to the Study of History. H. Holt. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-7905-5364-1. OCLC 150572322. L'histoire se fait avec des documents. Les documents sont les traces qu'ont laissées les pensées et les actes des hommes d'autrefois. [History is made with documents. Documents are the traces left by the thoughts and actions of people from times past.]

Further reading

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