[1][2][3] The new style of humanistic historiography was established by historians of Florence, namely Leonardo Bruni in his Historiarum Florentini populi libri (published from 1416 to 1449), and the scholarly works of Francesco Petrarca,[2] with Giovanni Villani's Istorie fiorentine being a precursor to humanistic historiography, identifying causes in human actions and motives rather than in fate.
[5][2] The humanists used ancient Greek and Roman historians, especially Livy, Sallust, and Julius Caesar as their models.
[9] Moreover, in the interest of rhetorical and dramatic effectiveness, the individual had to become the center of action to such a degree that again the permanent determinants that in fact leave not so much room for heroic freedom were obscured.
Such problems as the translatio imperii and the speculation of the four world monarchies disappeared without a word of discussion.
In the eighteenth century, when Voltaire started his secularization of history,[10] the polemic against the Christian position of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was of interest.