Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents.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, with the addition of a "von" to his name.
1875 portrait of Ranke by Adolf Jebens
1877 portrait of Ranke
History is the systematic study and documentation of the human past.
Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) has been considered the "father of history" in the Western world.
History by Frederick Dielman (1896)
The title page to The Historians' History of the World
The title page to La Historia d'Italia