THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE POPES OF ROME During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Translated from the German by Sarah Austin

London: John Murray, 1840. 3 volumes. First Edition in English. Tall 8vo, bound in contemporary tan cloth over printer's boards, the spines with the original printed labels. xxiv,528; iv, 596; iv, [2], 416 pp. A good reading copy, inner hinges supported with tape, the outer hinges of Vol. I the same, normal age wear. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF A SEMINAL WORK BY ONE OF THE LEADING HISTORIANS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Leopold von Ranke, German historian and a founder of modern source-based history, was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on the methods of the Göttingen School of History, he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources (empiricism), an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics (Außenpolitik). He was ennobled in 1865.
Ranke also had a great influence on Western historiography and is considered a symbol of the quality of 19th century German historical studies. He was able to create narratives without exceeding the limits of historical evidence. His critics have noted the influence of Lutheranism in guiding his work, especially his belief that God's actions were manifest in the lives of men and history.
From 1834 to 1836, Ranke published Die römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat im sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhundert (ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE POPES OF ROME During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries) (3 vols. as here). As a Protestant, Ranke was barred from viewing the Vatican archives in Rome, but on the basis of private papers in Rome and Venice he was able to explain the history of the papacy in the 16th century. In this book, Ranke coined the term "Counter-reformation" and offered colorful portrayals of Pope Paul IV, Ignatius of Loyola and Pope Pius V. He promoted research into primary sources: "I see the time approaching when we shall base modern history, no longer on the reports even of contemporary historians, except insofar as they were in the possession of personal and immediate knowledge of facts; and still less on work yet more remote from the source; but rather on the narratives of eyewitnesses, and on genuine and original documents".[