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Archontology

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


Archontology is the study of historical offices and important positions in state, international, political, religious and other organizations and societies. It includes chronology, succession of office holders, their biographies, and related records.

Development of archontology[edit]

The term archontology appears to have been first used in the early 17th century in Europe. In 1613 the "Sr. D.T.V.Y." (Pierre d'Avity) published an encyclopedic description of the countries of the world — as far as known in Europe at the time — including their provinces and colonies as well as segments on their history complete with list of rulers under the title Les Estats, Empires, et Principautez du Monde. Representez par la Description des Paÿs, mœurs des habitans, Richesses des Provinces, les forces, le gouvernement, la Religion, et les Princes qui ont gouverné chacun Estat. Avec L'origine de toutes les Religions, et de tous les Chevaliers et ordres Militaires. (The States, Empires, and Principalities of the World. Represented by the description of the lands, customs of the inhabitants, riches of the provinces, the forces, the government, the religion, and the princes that have governed each state. With the origin of all Religions, and of all the Knights and military orders.) A Latin translation was published in Germany in 1628 by to Johann Ludwig Gottfried as Archontologia Cosmica, sive Imperiorum, Regnorum, Principatum, rerumque Publicarum omnium per totum Terrarum Orbem, followed in 1638 by a German translation, also credited, posthumously, to Gottfried by Matthäus Merian, in turn followed by a new edition titled "Newe Archontologia Cosmica" in 1646.

The full title of the German second edition ran: Newe Archontologia Cosmica, das ist Beschreibung aller Kaÿserthumben, Königreichen und Republicken der gantzen Welt, die keinen Höhern erkennen: Wie dieselbe in ihren Gräntzen und Anmarckungen begrieffen, was darinnen für Provincien unnd Landtschafften, stehende unnd fliessende Wasser, fürnehme Stätt und Vestungen, Commercien und Handthierungen: wie auch von der Alten und Newen Innwohnern Gebräuchen, Rechten und Gewonheiten, Fruchtbarkeit und Unfruchtbarkeit deß Erdreichs, Item von der Potentaten Rennten und Einkommen, Kriegs-Macht zu Wasser und Landt, Religions- und Kirchen-Wesen, so dann letzlichen Ordentlicher Succession und Nachfolge der Römischen Käysern, Königen, Fürsten und Herren. (New Cosmic Archontology, that is description of all empires, kingdoms and republics of the whole world, which do not recognize a Superior: How those same [are] constituted in their borders and demarcations, what provinces and regions, standing and running waters, principal cities and fortresses, trades and crafts therein [are]: as well as of the old and new inhabitants' customs, rights and habits, fertility and infertility of the soil, furthermore of the potentates' rents and incomes, military power on sea and land, religious and church affairs, and finally proper succession and descendance of the Roman emperors, kings, princes and lords.)

By the 19th century the term archontology was used in the more narrow sense as defined above, focusing on the rulers and leading officials of countries. An example is the archontological study on the Palatines and Bans in Hungary before 1301 published in 1894 by Moriz Wertner (Wertner, 1894).

So, despite the term itself only beginning to be used in early modern Europe, the so designated science is much much older and was practised not just in Europe but all over the world. Archontology is closely connected to its sister science, chronology. While the latter is the science of the methods of keeping track of time (from the Greek χρόνος, chrónos, 'time'), archontology is the somewhat consequential science of keeping track of rulers (from the Greek ἄρχων ἄρχων, 'árchōn', a ruler).

One of the reasons to develop writing was to keep records of financial and other bussiness transactions like property sales over time. In order for that one would need to be able to refer to different points in time, such as regarding this year's harvest, last year's harvest, that of five years ago or my deed of sale predating and thus invalidating yours.

Many different methods were used to refer to years. One could (a) make reference to memorable events (so e.g. in ancient Iraq) - like 'the year of the pandemic'. The very beginning of a year or particularly uneventful years would however pose a problem, for 'the year before the pandemic' is inconvenient, especially in lists.

Alternatively, one could (b) simply count the years. That obviously requires a reference point, a year to start counting from. Particularly when living in a hierarchical society such as a monarchy, a sensible reference would be to use regnal years — as was done all over the world and indeed sometimes still is. In Japan, e.g., official documents continue to be dated in regnal years, while in the United Kingdom, laws are traditionally referred to by regnal year (e.g. the Interpretation Act, 1889 is also known as '52 & 53 Vict. c. 63', the 63rd law of the 52nd/53rd regnal year of Queen Victoria).

A legality from mediaeval Europe, e.g. issued by "episcopis Leo, seruus seruorum Dei" (Pope Leo III) might be found dated "Anno tertio, atque domini Caroli, excellentissimi domini regis Francorum et Longobardorum, et patricii Romanorum, [...], anno XXV; indictione sexta." (third year, as well as of lord Carolus, the most excellent lord king of the Franks and Longobards, and patrician of the Romans, [...], 25th year, sixth indiction) [1].

The logical consequence of using such regnal years was the necessity of keeping records of the rulers concerned, all the more so the more time passes and the more rulers come and go. Even in early republican polities, e.g. in Ancient Greece or Rome, where the rulers would change every year, events were often dated indirectly using the names of those frequently changing leaders. Such practices would necessitate widespread archontological knowledge or at least the public availability of lists of the office holders, such as Roman fasti consulares (discussed in some detail in Ginzel, 1911, §182).

Another even earlier example of an archontological study, albeit not using the word, and one that goes beyond a simple list of rulers, is the more than 3000 years old Turin Kinglist [2] from Ancient Egypt. In China about a millenium later, Sīmǎ Qiān (司馬遷) compiled annotated lists of the rulers of pre-Imperial China in the Shǐjì (史記, chapters 14 & 15 in particular), in which, as a sign of quality as he himself explains, he only added precise dates to the lists as far back as he felt comfortable, a still remarkable seven centuries. This ground-breaking work then provided the framework that all official histories Twenty-Four Histories of the subsequent empires in China followed.

Sometimes regnal years were continued even after the death of the ruler in question, giving rise to more generalized eras, such as the Gupta era in India, that do not, inconveniently, restart every time the ruler changes [3]. At other times, some more or less arbitrary event was defined as the epoch of a more generalized era such as the modern Common Era (C.E.). Although the widespread adoption of such more generalized chronological eras has eliminated the above-described chronological reason for archontological studies, archontological records and studies kept being produced. Unfortunately, the wider the scope, the greater the likelihood of mistakes or inconsistencies resulting from insufficiently verified sources or simple misprints copied from one publication into the next.

While most works were limited to a particular country or region, the heyday of European colonialism enabled and indeed saw the publication of several compilations that surpassed previous efforts that, for lack of sufficient information, typically did not cover more than the Mediterranean and other European monarchies in favour of a truly global aim. Examples are

  • Anthony Marinus Hendrik Johan Stokvis' Manuel d'histoire, de généalogie et du chronologie de tous les états du globe, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'a nos jours (1888-).
  • Bertold Spuler's Regenten und Regierungen der Welt. / Sovereigns and Governments of the World (1953-)
  • and, directly building on Spuler but additionally also covering an unprecedented amount of regional or sub-national entities in more than 4,000 pages: Peter Truhart's Regenten der Welt/Regents of Nations (1st ed., 1984-1988)

The rising popularity of personal, and later also institutional websites during the 1990s has also triggered the creation of numerous websites that provide(d) archontological material of varying scope and quality. While many are still individual efforts, some do or did represent collaborative efforts. The records of truly community-driven websites like the Wikipedia by comparison do have the potential of vastly improved data but come with a much higher risk of very uneven data quality. Among the early examples of archontological websites with a global scope are:

The ongoing digitization of source material all over the world does — in theory at least — enable a more thorough verification of the previously published lists and compilations and does increase the possibilities for improvements of as yet incomplete records. Community feedback furthermore allows for a more speedy correction of mistakes, that in earlier printed sources could not have been corrected as easily.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Boczek, A. (1836). Codex Diplomaticus et epistolaris Moraviae, Tomus Primus, p. 3f, No. V.
  2. ↑ www.ancient-egypt.org/history/turin_kinglist/index.html
  3. ↑ Ginzel, F.K. (1906). Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie — Das Zeitrechnungswesen der Völker (Vol. 1), §§ 98-117

External links[edit]


This article "Archontology" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Archontology. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.


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