Orígenes, causas e inventores en la historiografía del Renacimiento

This article studies the formation of Early Modern historiography through examining the theories, methods and functions of one of its most conspicuous and relevant types, that which investigates the origins of historical entities and facts. By focussing both on the artes historicae and on a wide range of accounts about the foundation of cities, the invention of arts or the causes of wars, this article illustrates how Renaissance writers construct a scientific paradigm which sanctions the ideological, philosophical and rhetorical forms, purposes and values of the narrative of the origins and allows to understand that it is precisely because of its principles and methods that this kind of stories are so characteristic of Early Modern historiography.