Travel, Expertise and Readers: Francesco Ottieri (1665-1742) and the Writing of Modern History

Abstract

This article analyses Francesco Ottieri’s historical work, his authority as historian, and his book’s eighteenth-century readers. During the seventeenth century, books concerning recent events and early newspapers informed an expanding European readership. Between 1716 and 1735, Ottieri authored the Istoria, an eight-volume account of the War of the Spanish Succession. Although the book circulated significantly during the eighteenth century, coming into possession of some of the period’s most eminent historians, it was thereafter largely forgotten. Ottieri, a nobleman and holder of courtly offices, applied to modern history the antiquarian’s new attention to sources and documents. His social status, and the experiences acquired at court and during his European travels provided both information and authority. Breaking with a late-humanist tradition of retired statesman-historians, Ottieri became in the reading public’s eye an authoritative and impartial voice on modern history. The Istoria pioneered a new form of historiography, which combined elements of antiquarian scholarship with its author’s unprecedented determination to inform the general public.