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American Society of Church History
The Footnote: A Curious History by Anthony GraftonReview by:
Martin E. MartyChurch History, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp.
849-850Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of the
American Society of Church HistoryStable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3169931.
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BOOK REVIEWSAND NOTESOOK REVIEWSAND NOTES(120).This is a risky
historicalenterprise,especially in a work of survey depth.Still, if
the execution is questionable, the effort is plausible.The
plausibility of Maddox's argument becomes especially clear in
theexcellent conclusion, where the authorsurveys
contemporaryChristianpoliti-cal action in Poland,
EastGermany,LatinAmerica, and South Africa.So, if this book is in
some ways a backwards history, marredby presentistbias and dated
sources, it can perhaps serve as a catalyst for historians toreturn
to some classical questions about the relationshipbetween
Christianityand politics, and add to their answers the sort of
detail about popular cultureand institutional life that eludes the
author here.
Jon PahlValparaiso UniversityThe Footnote: A Curious History. By
Anthony Grafton. Cambridge, Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press, 1997.xiv
+ 242 pp. $22.95cloth.If this little book were titled TheFootnote:A
History,it would be a failure,almost a fraud. One of the last and
least things it does is trace the history of thefootnote from its
(probably still unknown) beginnings through the rise ofmodern
scientific history to the present chaotic situation of citation
andpublication. The adjective Curiousserves to characterizethe
effort, redeem itfrom failure, and make it an honest contribution,
at least in the form ofdiversion for overworked and overspecialized
historians.Those who are suspicious of books advertised as curious
may fear thatGrafton'swill be a cute work, a trivialization of a
scholarly subject,a satire onan obvious target. TheFootnote s
anything but that. One might think of it as aset of elegant essays
on historiographical subjects that have drawn theattention of the
Princeton professor who has written Defenders f the TextandNew
Worlds,Ancient Texts.He lets his mind and chapters-and eventually
ourcuriosities-wander with apparently aimless ease to confront
familiar andunfamiliarhistorical work alike.Graftondoes not explain
himself in detail as he meanders from the recent ( )past, with
Leopold von Ranke as his example, back through the philosophesand
beyond some ecclesiastical historians to Renaissance times.
Withouttrying to make much of a thesis for the whole book, he
grounds it at the end inthe beginnings: "The CartesianOrigins of
the Modern Footnote."On occasion lighthearted and sometimes
humorous, Grafton has not cho-sen this genre to display wit or
satire so much as to chronicle its presence orabsence. He does not
overly involve himself in the endless and irresolvabledisputes
about where to locate footnotes or endnotes, though he does tip
hishand. Curiously, he does not seem to notice that some chapters
deal withauthors who, while they stressed "scientific" historical
documentation, didnot make much use of footnotes.Why review this
book in ChurchHistory?Fortwo good reasons:It is hard topicture any
historian concerned with things sacred or profane who would notfind
her or his curiosity aroused or pulse quickened to the excitements
thatcome with being a historian. And one of seven chapters is
devoted to "TheAntlike Industry of EcclesiasticalHistorians and
Antiquaries."The historians in that chapter include the polymathic
GermanJesuit Atha-nasius Kircher, whom Grafton locates in Eusebian
and Baronion Annales
(120).This is a risky historicalenterprise,especially in a work
of survey depth.Still, if the execution is questionable, the effort
is plausible.The plausibility of Maddox's argument becomes
especially clear in theexcellent conclusion, where the
authorsurveys contemporaryChristianpoliti-cal action in Poland,
EastGermany,LatinAmerica, and South Africa.So, if this book is in
some ways a backwards history, marredby presentistbias and dated
sources, it can perhaps serve as a catalyst for historians toreturn
to some classical questions about the relationshipbetween
Christianityand politics, and add to their answers the sort of
detail about popular cultureand institutional life that eludes the
author here.Jon PahlValparaiso University
The Footnote: A Curious History. By Anthony Grafton. Cambridge,
Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press, 1997.xiv + 242 pp. $22.95cloth.If
this little book were titled TheFootnote:A History,it would be a
failure,almost a fraud. One of the last and least things it does is
trace the history of thefootnote from its (probably still unknown)
beginnings through the rise ofmodern scientific history to the
present chaotic situation of citation andpublication. The adjective
Curiousserves to characterizethe effort, redeem itfrom failure, and
make it an honest contribution, at least in the form ofdiversion
for overworked and overspecialized historians.Those who are
suspicious of books advertised as curious may fear
thatGrafton'swill be a cute work, a trivialization of a scholarly
subject,a satire onan obvious target. TheFootnote s anything but
that. One might think of it as aset of elegant essays on
historiographical subjects that have drawn theattention of the
Princeton professor who has written Defenders f the TextandNew
Worlds,Ancient Texts.He lets his mind and chapters-and eventually
ourcuriosities-wander with apparently aimless ease to confront
familiar andunfamiliarhistorical work alike.Graftondoes not explain
himself in detail as he meanders from the recent ( )past, with
Leopold von Ranke as his example, back through the philosophesand
beyond some ecclesiastical historians to Renaissance times.
Withouttrying to make much of a thesis for the whole book, he
grounds it at the end inthe beginnings: "The CartesianOrigins of
the Modern Footnote."On occasion lighthearted and sometimes
humorous, Grafton has not cho-sen this genre to display wit or
satire so much as to chronicle its presence orabsence. He does not
overly involve himself in the endless and irresolvabledisputes
about where to locate footnotes or endnotes, though he does tip
hishand. Curiously, he does not seem to notice that some chapters
deal withauthors who, while they stressed "scientific" historical
documentation, didnot make much use of footnotes.Why review this
book in ChurchHistory?Fortwo good reasons:It is hard topicture any
historian concerned with things sacred or profane who would notfind
her or his curiosity aroused or pulse quickened to the excitements
thatcome with being a historian. And one of seven chapters is
devoted to "TheAntlike Industry of EcclesiasticalHistorians and
Antiquaries."The historians in that chapter include the polymathic
GermanJesuit Atha-nasius Kircher, whom Grafton locates in Eusebian
and Baronion Annales
84949
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