Nowhere is antiquarum perhaps more fascinating than in the field of religion. There is a long history of this rather negative view of Antiquartum and its relationship to history. Even in the 17th century, the figure of the antiquarian was caricatured: despite the importance of ancient writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars consider that antiquarianism emerged only in the Middle Ages. [7] Medieval antique dealers sometimes made collections of inscriptions or records of monuments, but the concept of antiquities inspired by Varro under the Romans faded as the “systematic collections of all the relics of the past.” [8] The further flourishing of antiquarianism is more generally associated with the Renaissance and the critical evaluation and questioning of classical texts of this period by humanist scholars. Textual criticism quickly spread to an awareness of the complementary perspectives on the past that the study of coins, inscriptions and other archaeological remains, as well as documents from the Middle Ages, could provide. Antique dealers often formed collections of these and other objects; Cabinet of Curiosities is a general term for early collections, which often included antiques and more recent art, natural history objects, souvenirs, and objects from distant lands. An antique dealer or antique dealer (from Latin: antiquarius, which means it refers to antiquity) is a lover or student of antiques or things from the past. Specifically, the term is used for those who study history with special attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historical sites, or historical archives and manuscripts. The essence of antiquarianism is an emphasis on empirical evidence from the past and is perhaps best summed up in the motto of 18th century antique dealer Sir Richard Colt Hoare: “We are talking about facts, not theories.” Simple antiquarianism, Dr. Arnold rightly argues, is designed to reduce and weaken understanding. Similarly, antiquarianism has always had close links with the study of local history.
Some of the early antique dealers were topographers such as John Leland or William Camden, who realized that the landscape could provide important clues to the history of the people who had once inhabited this place. The first attempts to trace Roman roads, to describe stone circles or to identify castles of the art age were made by antique dealers. In addition, antique dealers have always appreciated the importance of local study to illustrate the impact of historical changes on individuals and communities. The pursuit of “total history” illustrated by the Annales school shares the same global vision of the past that antique dealers tried to find in earlier periods. Similarly, interdisciplinarity, which is one of the defining forces of English local history, as practised, for example, at the University of Leicester, is the modern counterpart to the intellectual diversity practised by antique dealers of the past. What did antiquarianism then have to offer the discipline of history, as opposed to the development of modern archaeology? Traditionally, it was considered the “servant” of history, providing the raw materials from which a historical narrative could be constructed, verifying the events of history with corroborating material derived from evidence, for example, coins and inscriptions. (3) But this understanding of the nature of the relationship between antiquarianism and history was articulated at a time when writing history was essentially a literary exercise rather than a work of research as we would understand it today. The historian has striven to write a narrative that is both elegant in tone and uplifting in content. The purpose of historiography was to provide a guide to action for the present.
The antique dealer was only concerned with restoring the empirical details of the past. C. R. Cheney, who wrote in 1956, noted that “today we have reached such a path that the word `antique dealer` is not always much appreciated, while `antiquarianism` is almost a concept of abuse.” [23] Arnaldo Momigliano defined an antique dealer in 1990 as “the kind of man who is interested in historical facts without being interested in history.” [24] Professional historians still often use the term “antiquarian” in a pejorative sense to refer to historical studies that appear to be concerned solely with the recording of trivial or trivial facts and that do not take into account the broader implications of these or make any kind of argument. The term is also sometimes applied to the activities of amateur historians such as historical re-enactors, who may have a meticulous approach to reconstructing the costumes or material culture of past eras, but who lack a great understanding of the cultural values and historical contexts of the epochs in question. For use in the sense of archaism, see, for example, Jeffrey Jullich, Review of Bed Hangings by Susan Howe, Electronic Poetry Review #2.
