Images of simultaneity and the difficulties of the narrative - The case of Johann Christoph Gatterer’s Synopsis historiae universalis (1766)

Abstract

In the academic context in which modern historical thought became a science, Johann Christoph Gatterer (1727-1799) published a set of six historical tables under the title Synopsis historiae universalis (1766). His aim was both to present an overview of the simultaneity of historical events and to overcome difficulties faced by the narrative representation of world history. By analyzing Gatterer’s six folios, this article outlines the features of a historiographical genre that was already widespread at the time of the Enlightenment, pointing to the reconfigurations that accompanied the emergence of a new visual semantics in the sciences. The paper argues that visual information should be considered as part and parcel of the process through which late Enlightenment historical thought became science. By doing so, it also attempts to show the limits of traditional logocentric interpretations of the history of modern historical thought.v

Keywords:
history and image; Enlightenment historiography; historical tables (historiographical genre).