Table Of ContentJ'r(ethod for the
EASY COMPREHENSION
of HISTORY
By JEAN BODIN
TRANSLATED BY
BEATRICE REYNOLDS
w.
W· NORTON & COMPANY ' INC . New York
COPYRIGHT 1945 BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published in this edition 1969 b'y
arrangement with Columbia University Press
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1234567890
IT is a pleasure to give thanks to Mr. Roger Howson,
formerly Librarian of Columbia University, for per
mitting me to borrow the editions of 1583 and 1595; to
Drs. Lynn Thorndike and P. O. Kristeller for a critical
reading of the manuscript; to Dr. A. P. Evans, editor
of the "Records of Civilization," for hiseditorial labors;
to variouscolleagues from whom I havesought informa
tion, as well as to the staffs of the libraries of Columbia
and Yale universities and Connecticut College.
BEATRICE REYNOLDS
New London, Conn.
January, 1944
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION IX
DEDICATION I
9
PREAMBLE
I. WHAT HISTORY IS AND OF HOW MANY CATEGORIES IS
II. THE ORDER OF READING HISTORICAL TREATISES 20
III. THE PROPER ARRANGEMENT OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL 28
IV. THE CHOICE OF HISTORIANS 4-1
V. THE CORRECT EVALUATION OF HISTORIES 85
153
VI. THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT IN STATES
VII. REFUTATION OF THOSE WHO POSTULATE FOUR MON-
ARCHIES AND THE GOLDEN AGE 291
VIII. A SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL TIME 303
IX. CRITERIA BY WHICH TO TEST THE ORIGINS OF PEOPLES 334-
x. THE ORDER AND COLLECTION OF HISTORIANS 365
38
BIBLIOGRAPHY I
INDEX 389
INTRODUCTION
JEAN BODIN, by birth Angevin, acquired his legal education at the Uni
versity of Toulouse and later lectured on Roman law in the same
town, spending there about a decade of his life. The university, in
the sixteenth century, was one of the largest in France, comprising more
than four thousand students, both French and foreign, but the traditional
method of instruction wasunderfire. A new way of interpreting the Code
had been introduced at the universities of Bologna and Padua, and the
older waysof Toulouse received unfavorable criticism. Visiting professors
from Italian institutions and French scholars who had studied in Italy
underAlciati were making the attack.
The school of post-glossators, of whom the greatest was Bartolus of
Sassoferrato, had attempted to apply the Code and the Gloss to four
teenth-eentury conditions, with interpretations necessarily somewhat
strained. In addition, they used the scholastic method. But the humanists
ofthe Italian Renaissance reproached the legists for their neglect, on the
one hand, of the conditions producing the law and, on the other, of the
value of the Roman statutes as a source for historical knowledge. One of
the most outspoken criticsof the Bartolists wasLaurentius Valla. Politian
and Bude both undertook to reform legal instruction, the latter publish
ing a work on the first twenty-four books of the Digest, which he treated
inthe lightof the revived knowledgeof classicalantiquity.
From Alciati developed the historical school of law. He studied classi
cal culture at Milan, under Parrhasius, and obtained his legal training
from Jason of Mayno and Philip Decius at Pavia. His humanist and ju
risticinterests led him to believe that the literature and the history of an
tiquity, as well aspurity of diction, could make a weighty contribution to
the interpretation of Justinian's Code. The newer method he taught at
Avignon in 15I 8and at Bourgesin 1529, aswell asat Italian universities.
His influenceisreflected in the teachingofseveral French professors,such
asCujas and Duaren.AsLemonniersuggests, theysoughtto placeagiven
text inits propersequence inthe lifework of a jurist, then the juristin his
proper school, and the school in its own epoch. This was a very different
thing from attempting to applyan old law to currentconditions. Co-oper
ation between humanists and lawyers was essential for the successof a
method which ledLeCaron at least to proclaim that the ultimate philos
1
ophy wasLaw.
1Loys Charondas Le Caron, 1536-1617, a poet and jurisconsult, composed Le Grand
x INTRODUCTION
This conclusion might also have occurred to Bodin, who lived in Tou
louse from 1550to 1560.Theuniversity,whileconservative initsappoint
ments, was nevertheless aware of the importance of Alciati and of his
followers, since Cujas was lecturing in Toulouse in 1547. Bodin's desire
to achieve a synthesis of universal law may well have developed from a
similar interpretation of its significance."As a humanist, with some train
ing in theology and agreateremphasis on law, he wasstirred to integrate
the three into a philosophy of history. His interest in the question of
method isevidenced by his Gratia demstituendain republicajuventute,a
plea to open a school of classicalculture in connection with the legal fac
ulty.
France, at the mid-century, was passing from the exuberance of her
first Renaissance under Francis I into a more troubled period when the
court ceased to be tolerant of nonconformity. Henry II, lesssympathetic
to innovation, actively persecuted dissent. During the reigns of his two
youngsonsCatherinede' Medici strove to retain for the dynasty the pow
ers which Francis had firmly grasped, but by the time Bodin was moving
from Toulouseto Paris,the kingdom wason the eve of civiland religious
warfare.
In addition, then, to the universal and eternal question of the interpre
tation of history, there was also the narrower and more timely problem
of the nature of government in France. Both these questions, I think,
were in the mind of Bodin when he wrote his treatise in 1565. It isonly
in the light of increasingly alarming political conditions, from 1565 to
1576, that one can explain the change that took place in his political phi
losophy between the writing of the Methodus and of the Republic. Too
much stress has been placed upon Bodin as the author of the Republic;
too little notice has been paid to his earlier and more liberal work, which
wasissued in thirteen Latin editions between 1566and 1650.3 In a prefa
tory notice in the 1608edition of the Republic,the author disclaimed any
support ofabsolutism, quoting bookand chapterto prove that heobjected
to the increase of royal power. He called attention to his activities on be
half of the Third Estate during the meeting at Blois, where his resolute
Coutumier de France, Pandectes du droit [rancais, and some works on Roman law. The
quotation isgivenin Lavisse, Histoirede France, v (2"partie), JIJ.
2Francis Baudouin in De institutione historiae et coniunctione eius cum jurisprudentUJ
(1561) isanother who supports this opinion.
aThomas Heywood, in his introduction to an English translation of Sallust in 1608,
translated chapter IV of the Iv!etlJodm.
INTRODUCTION
XI
stand exposed him to some peril. An alleged Apologia de Rene Harpin
pottrla Republique, really written by Bodin and published in 1599, com
plainedthat hiscritic,AugerFerrier,had usedthe leastaccurateedition of
thework,and built against the authoracaseactually basedonthe printer's
errors.
The feudal regime, in allying itself with the Huguenot constitution
alists,was making its last stand against concentration of authority in the
hands of its overlord. Calvin's ecclesiastical pattern had furnished to his
French followers a model for distributing governmental functions in a
manner which would grant to their faction some voicein administrative
policy. Alarge number of the nobles, particularly those without influence
at court, sawin the program of federalization offered by the Huguenots
a chanceto revive provincial strength and their own claims to local au
thority. It wastherefore the problem of sovereignty which Bodin had to
consider in analyzing the government of France. He dealt with this vital
problemagainst the wider background ofan interpretation of history.
His expressed aim in writing the Methodus wasthe study of universal
law,for inthe narrative of human affairs,he said, the bestpart of univer
sal law lay hidden. Furthermore, he had not been able to discover any
historian who explained the art and the method of hissubject, or anyone
whoderivedalessontherefrom.The bookisofvalue inthat itgivesusthe
intellectual content of a mind of the transitional period between the me
dievaland the modern age.To someextent he took all knowledge for his
province-with a consequent loss in specialization-and his division of
knowledge into human, natural, and divine led him to write booksin all
three fields.ChapterVI ofthe Methoduswasadraftofthe laterRepublic;
chapter VIII foreshadowed the Theatrum naturae.Throughout are scat
tered sentences and paragraphs leading toward the Heptaplomeres. He
revealed the trends of his era in that his philosophy of history moved
awayfrom the authoritarian toward the natural-in this case,toward the
pseudoscientific-for,while hedevotedanentire chapter tothe theorythat
thecourseofevents wasdetermined bypopulartraits, and these inturn by
climate, yet he added as further natural causesthe influence of numbers
and of heavenly bodies propelled by the Prime Mover. The medieval
theory of a providential determination of history wasnot entirely foreign
tohisthought,although he introduced variables not immediatelyderived
from the Prime Mover.
As he borrowed from the past, so future writers borrowed from him.
XIl INTRODUCTION
Eventhe eighteenth-centuryrationalists found someof histheoriesaccept
able. One might, for instance, trace the lineage of the influence-of-climate
idea from Hippocrates down to the twentieth century."
Since knowledge of human affairs, or history, wasin this book hischief
concern, he wished to establish order and manner in historical events;
thatis,theirtimesequence,which involved an investigationofchronologi
cal systems, and their logical correlation, which required a critical ap
praisal of the degree of objectivity of the historian.
Hissecondchapterand alarge partof the thirddeal with methodology.
An elaborate program of reading on the deductive plan isindicated. The
reader should move from brief general accounts to more detailed nar
ratives; he should startwith stories of earliest times and advance through
the centuries. Biographies are of value in furnishing guides to conduct.
Subjects allied to history, such as cosmography and geography, are es
sential for a proper comprehension of the whole. Here again the ap
proach is from universals to particulars. The reader should study the
entire universe, then the geography and the topography of separate por
tions, as he studies universal history before the histories of different
countries. Such voluminous reading entails systematic arrangement of
notes. Human activities concentrated upon the defense of society may
be classified under forms of control: self-discipline, familial discipline,
and civic discipline. Here the author digressed to analyze government
into its three functions-ruling (imperium), counseling, and fulfilling
orders. Thus he recognized specialization, but left responsibility with
those having imperium. There is no division of final authority, for
sovereignty rests in one group only. The reader should arrange his notes
in accordance with a main heading, following the above classification.
Before the notes are taken, however, the material must be critically
appraised. Chapter IV quotes Aristotle's advice to readers of history
do not believe all or discredit completely. One should take into con
sideration the background and training of the historian. What are his
qualifications for writing? Natural ability developed by education and
practical experience produces the most suitable type of writer. Lack of
emotional bias is desirable, and it is more nearly attained when the au
thor deals with a period long past or a country not his own. He should
make use of official records and should avoid prejudicing the reader by
4See,for instance, H. Busson, in his introduction to Pomponazzi's Les Causesdesmer
veilles de La nature, p. 25, and Lucien Febvre, A Geographical Introduction to History,
p. 108, where hesaysof Montesquieu, Buckle, and MissSemple,"ItisBodin, revised,cor
rected, and considerablyenlarged, but it isnever anythingbut Bodin."
INTRODUCTION Xlll
offeringmoral judgments, unless he has authority in that field, asCaesar
had on military matters.
The rest of chapter IV is devoted to criticism of many historians. If
Bodin actually read them all, he spent years in preparation for his task,
and he did reveal a niceacumen in his estimates of the ulterior motives
behind the statements of many authors. Prejudices against race, classes,
and political affiliations did not escape him. It is true that he himself
was not free from nationalist bias, and we detect his childlike pride in
the achievements of famous Angevins along with a more serious exag
geration of the virtues of the Celts, the Franks, and the French, who
to him represented the Aristotelian mean.
It is in the fifth chapter that we meet a seminaturalistic theory of his
tory. The author carried on the thought of the previous chapter
criticism of historians-by saying that the disagreement among writers
necessitated the establishment of standards for the reader. If we could
decideupon the fundamentals ordinarily motivating the trend of events
and the course of empire, we could then judge the probable accuracyof
the account of a single country given by any individual writer. The
destiny of a nation is determined partly by the character of its people.
This is implicit in his discussion. His main emphasis, however, was on
the means whereby character is formed. These were, of course, nature
and training. But what shaped the nature? Why was the training of a
given type? He found hisanswer in the influenceof geography.
Other factors affecting the course of empire were the harmony of
numbers and the stars in so far as they reflected greater forces beyond
them. Bodin denied the Ptolemaic theory that the triplicities of the zo
diacexercise compulsion, and he did so on grounds in part philosophic,
but in part scientific, based on actual astronomic data. He revealed here
an acquaintance with the writings of Jerome Cardan," whom he chal
lenged more often than heaccepted.
Racial peculiarities, the influence of the planets, and Pythagorean
numbers fit into the pattern of the Platonism of the Renaissance. It is
in his treatment of geographic determinism that he made a contribution
somewhat more ample, by combining with Platonic doctrines the the
oriesof Hippocrates and Strabo.
The earth was divided into areas of thirty degrees from the equator
ad~
6Jerome Cardan, 1501-1576, an Italian physician and astrologer. In to his
more celebrated work on thesolution of cubical equations, he produced De subtilitate, and
Dererumoarletate tosummarize hisideason metaphysics.
XIV INTRODUCTION
northward according to temperature. This, of course, was an imitation
of the Ptolemaic zones. The author did little with the southern hemi
sphere, but he was aware that it existed and that some sections were
inhabited. Each of these thirty-degree areas was in turn divided into
two parts, the fifteen-degree units around the pole and below the tropic
being most sparsely inhabited. From the tropic north to seventy-five
degrees he found it possible to make generalizations as to the character
of the inhabitants. They differed in coloration, going from dark to me
dium, to blond, to reddish, with more variety in the mean area than
elsewhere. They differed in temperament: those in the south were con
templative and religious, developing great wisdom, but lacking in en
ergy. They were "the old men." Those in the north were active and
strong, but of no great sagacity, corresponding to youth. Men dwelling
in the intervening lands were endowed with the good qualities of both
and showed no excess. They were like men in middle life, prudent and
most fit to take control. Other parallels with wisdom, prudence, and
activity he found in the attributes of the planets Saturn, Jupiter, and
Mars, which were assigned, respectively, to south, temperate, and north,
or in what for him were the physical functions of the brain, the heart,
and the liver. Thus, in analyzing the population of his own hemisphere
he found that different peoples complemented each other in the same
way asdid parts of the body, or the classesof a well-constituted state, or
the celestial spheres." Men from south, north, and the intervening area
formed the republic of the world."
Throughout, he stressed the superiority of the inhabitants of the tem
perate zone. They were the mean between the extremes, the virtue be
tween vices. They showed more varied types and more versatility in
talents. These advantages they owed partly to fusion with immigrants,
but more to a proper blending of the elements within themselves and
around them. Hence he linked history to man, man to his nature, na
ture to the cosmic powers working through the elements. The concept
of unity in plurality is interpreted as unity in diversity, a world where
each group fulfills a function determined by its geographic environ
ment. Such a world corresponds to the microcosm; it is an extension of
the Platonic republic; it displays in miniature the concord existing
throughout the universe.
Education would in time alter the customs and ideas of a people, but
unless it was consistently maintained, primitive traits would reassert
themselves. The Romans once rose to a position of eminence in many
oSee below, p. 122. 7Ibid., p. 119.
