The historiography of the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns: an overview

• Autor(a) principal: Sá Júnior, Luiz César de
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Antíteses
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/antiteses/article/view/26356
• topic: Modern history; Intellectual history; Quarrel of the ancients and the moderns; Battle of the books; Modern history of France/England; História moderna; História intelectual; Querela dos antigos e modernos; Batalha dos livros; História moderna da França/Inglaterra

This article aims to analyse historiographical texts concerning the so-called “quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns” in seventheenth and eighteenth centuries. Our study is led by the methodological assumption that the very concept of a “quarrel” ought to be meticulously submitted to scrutiny, since its contemporary usesmay distort the original meanings of the texts that it comprehends, giving birth to several connotations that ultimately (and somewhat paradoxically) assured the concept’s effectiveness over time. Moreover, we intend to shed light on the emergence of a teleological approach to the “quarrel”, which resulted in an interpretation of seventeenth and eighteenth-century controversies as Modernity milestones. As such, our investigation suggests, in conclusion, that the better way to deal with the aforementioned issues is to study the original circunstances of production of the quarrels along with the manifold mediations that they have endured over time.