Truth in Renaissance Historiography : The Case of Johannes Magnus

Summary, in English

The 19th century rise of history as an academic discipline set new standards for acceptable methods of writing history. This greatly influenced the opinions historians held of older historical works, such as the Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus (History of all the Kings of the Goths and the Swedes) by the Swedish archbishop Johannes Magnus (1488-1544). The work has been criticised for the absence of a proper critical approach to sources and for its lack of truthfulness. Johannes Magnus’ work is still regarded with a degree of suspicion in this respect.
Paradoxically, the very definition of the word historian in the Renaissance was an author who dealt with true things, and Johannes Magnus himself writes that his work was characterized by truth. This statement indicates that his notion of historical truth (as well as that of his contemporaries) was different from that of later historians. This article proposes a way of approaching Johannes Magnus’ notion of historical truth by comparing his version of an event with that of his source and discussing the differences.

• Author: Astrid M. H. Nilsson
• Editor: Arne Jönsson; Gregor Vogt-Spira
• Department/s: Latin
• Publishing year: 2017
• Language: English
• Pages: 33-53
• Publication/Series: Spudasmata
• Volume: 171
• Document type: Conference paper
• Publisher: Georg Olms Verlag AG
• Topic: Specific Literatures; History
• Keywords: Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus; Renaissance; historiography; truth; Johannes Magnus; Jordanes
• Conference name: Colloquium Balticum XI Lundense
• Conference date: 2012-11-08 - 2012-11-10
• Conference place: Lund, Sweden
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 978-3-487-15583-8