Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts. The essence of antiquarianism is a focus on the empirical evidence of the past, and is perhaps best encapsulated in the motto adopted by the 18th-century antiquary Sir Richard Colt Hoare, "We speak from facts, not theory."
The Oxford English Dictionary first cites "archaeologist" from 1824; this soon took over as the usual term for one major branch of antiquarian activity. "Archaeology", from 1607 onwards, initially meant what is now seen as "ancient history" generally, with the narrower modern sense first seen in 1837.
Today the term "antiquarian" is often used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow focus on factual historical trivia, to the exclusion of a sense of historical context or process. Few today would describe themselves as "antiquaries", but some institutions such as the Society of Antiquaries of London retain their historic names. The term "antiquarian bookseller" remains current for dealers in more expensive old books.

History

Antiquarianism in ancient China

During the Song dynasty, the scholar Ouyang Xiu analyzed alleged ancient artefacts bearing archaic inscriptions in bronze and stone, which he preserved in a collection of some 400 rubbings. Patricia Ebrey writes that Ouyang pioneered early ideas in epigraphy.
The or "Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity" compiled by Lü Dalin is one of the oldest known catalogues to systematically describe and classify ancient artefacts which were unearthed. Another catalogue was the or "Revised Illustrated Catalogue of Xuanhe Profoundly Learned Antiquity", commissioned by Emperor Huizong of Song, and also featured illustrations of some 840 vessels and rubbings.
Interests in antiquarian studies of ancient inscriptions and artefacts waned after the Song dynasty, but were revived by early Qing dynasty scholars such as Gu Yanwu and Yan Ruoju.

Antiquarianism in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, a strong sense of traditionalism motivated an interest in studying and recording the "monuments" of the past; the Augustan historian Livy uses the Latin monumenta in the sense of "antiquarian matters." Books on antiquarian topics covered such subjects as the origin of customs, religious rituals, and political institutions; genealogy; topography and landmarks; and etymology. Annals and histories might also include sections pertaining to these subjects, but annals are chronological in structure, and Roman histories, such as those of Livy and Tacitus, are both chronological and offer an overarching narrative and interpretation of events. By contrast, antiquarian works as a literary form are organised by topic, and any narrative is short and illustrative, in the form of anecdotes.
Major antiquarian Latin writers with surviving works include Varro, Pliny the Elder, Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius. The Roman emperor Claudius published antiquarian works, none of which is extant. Some of Cicero's treatises, particularly his work on divination, show strong antiquarian interests, but their primary purpose is the exploration of philosophical questions. Roman-era Greek writers also dealt with antiquarian material, such as Plutarch in his Roman Questions and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. The aim of Latin antiquarian works is to collect a great number of possible explanations, with less emphasis on arriving at a truth than in compiling the evidence. The antiquarians are often used as sources by the ancient historians, and many antiquarian writers are known only through these citations.
File:Antiquaries; twenty portraits of historians. Engraving by J. Wellcome V0006811.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.08|"Antiquaries": portraits of 20 influential antiquaries and historians published in Crabb's Universal Historical Dictionary. Featured are: Giraldus Cambrensis, John Leland, Guido Panciroli, John Stow, William Camden, Justus Lipsius, Joseph Justus Scaliger, Johannes Meursius, Hubert Goltzius, Henry Spelman, Charles Patin, Philipp Clüver, William Dugdale, Claudius Salmasius, Friedrich Spanheim, Johann Georg Graevius, Jakob Gronovius, Thomas Hearne, John Strype, and Elias Ashmole.

Medieval and early modern antiquarianism

Despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars view antiquarianism as emerging only in the Middle Ages. Medieval antiquarians sometimes made collections of inscriptions or records of monuments, but the Varro-inspired concept of antiquitates among the Romans as the "systematic collections of all the relics of the past" faded. Antiquarianism's wider flowering is more generally associated with the Renaissance, and with the critical assessment and questioning of classical texts undertaken in that period by humanist scholars. Textual criticism soon broadened into an awareness of the supplementary perspectives on the past which could be offered by the study of coins, inscriptions and other archaeological remains, as well as documents from medieval periods. Antiquaries often formed collections of these and other objects; cabinet of curiosities is a general term for early collections, which often encompassed antiquities and more recent art, items of natural history, memorabilia and items from far-away lands.
Image:William Camden Clarenceux.jpg|thumb|upright|left|William Camden, author of the Britannia, wearing the tabard and chain of office of Clarenceux King of Arms. Originally published in the 1695 edition of Britannia.
The importance placed on lineage in early modern Europe meant that antiquarianism was often closely associated with genealogy, and a number of prominent antiquaries held office as professional heralds. The development of genealogy as a "scientific" discipline went hand-in-hand with the development of antiquarianism. Genealogical antiquaries recognised the evidential value for their researches of non-textual sources, including seals and church monuments.
Many early modern antiquaries were also chorographers: that is to say, they recorded landscapes and monuments within regional or national descriptions. In England, some of the most important of these took the form of county histories.
In the context of the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, and more specifically that of the "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns" in England and France, the antiquaries were firmly on the side of the "Moderns". They increasingly argued that empirical primary evidence could be used to refine and challenge the received interpretations of history handed down from literary authorities.

19th–21st centuries

By the end of the 19th century, antiquarianism had diverged into a number of more specialised academic disciplines including archaeology, art history, numismatics, sigillography, philology, literary studies and diplomatics. Antiquaries had always attracted a degree of ridicule, and since the mid-19th century the term has tended to be used most commonly in negative or derogatory contexts. Nevertheless, many practising antiquaries continue to claim the title with pride. In recent years, in a scholarly environment in which interdisciplinarity is increasingly encouraged, many of the established antiquarian societies have found new roles as facilitators for collaboration between specialists.

Terminological distinctions

Antiquaries and antiquarians

"Antiquary" was the usual term in English from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries to describe a person interested in antiquities. From the second half of the 18th century, however, "antiquarian" began to be used more widely as a noun, and today both forms are equally acceptable.

Antiquaries and historians

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, a clear distinction was perceived to exist between the interests and activities of the antiquary and the historian. The antiquary was concerned with the relics of the past, whereas the historian was concerned with the narrative of the past, and its political or moral lessons for the present. The skills of the antiquary tended to be those of the critical examination and interrogation of his sources, whereas those of the historian were those of the philosophical and literary reinterpretation of received narratives. Jan Broadway defines an antiquary as "someone who studied the past on a thematic rather than a chronological basis". Francis Bacon in 1605 described readings of the past based on antiquities as "unperfect Histories". Such distinctions began to be eroded in the second half of the 19th century as the school of empirical source-based history championed by Leopold von Ranke began to find widespread acceptance, and today's historians employ the full range of techniques pioneered by the early antiquaries. Rosemary Sweet suggests that 18th-century antiquaries

Antiquarians, antiquarian books and antiques

In many European languages, the word antiquarian has shifted in modern times to refer to a person who either trades in or collects rare and ancient antiquarian books; or who trades in or collects antique objects more generally. In English, however, although the terms "antiquarian book" and "antiquarian bookseller" are widely used, the nouns "antiquarian" and "antiquary" very rarely carry this sense. An antiquarian is primarily a student of ancient books, documents, artefacts or monuments. Many antiquarians have also built up extensive personal collections in order to inform their studies, but a far greater number have not; and conversely many collectors of books or antiques would not regard themselves as antiquarians.
File:The Puzzle by John Bowles.jpg|thumb|The Puzzle : etching by John Bowles. In one variation on a recurrent joke, four antiquaries struggle to decipher what seems to be an ancient inscription, but which is in fact a crude memorial in English to Claud Coster, tripe-seller, and his wife. The print is ironically dedicated to "the Penetrating Genius's of Oxford, Cambridge, Eaton, Westminster, and the Learned Society of Antiquarians".