Auxiliary sciences of history

With the written word, history began to be written and with the passage of time other sciences were required to study it: The auxiliary sciences of history. They consist of a series of existing and derived sciences that have the function of helping a clearer compilation of information about what has happened and its importance.

These sciences can be found implicit and clearly summarized.

The auxiliary sciences of history are:

The auxiliary sciences of History can be of two kinds:

Independent auxiliary sciences:

1. Those that have their own ends, which we can call independent, but whose reports are valuable to history.

2. Those that are in a certain way, sciences created to serve directly to History, and that can be called subordinate to it.

Among the main independent auxiliary sciences of History, we find the following:

to) The geography.- Study the Earth, and that it is of enormous value to appreciate in which places human societies have developed and what possible influence the physical environment has had on them;

b) The Chronology.- Its purpose is to fix the divisions of time, the order of dates and events, in order to properly systematize them. The interest of this science and that of Geography is such that they have been called "the eyes of History".

c) The arqueology.- Its purpose is to study the remains (monuments, weapons, furniture, etc.) of the oldest civilizations.

d) Ethnology.- Study what refers to the characteristics of human races.

and) Geology.- Investigate the shape of the earth and the transformations that the earth's crust has undergone up to the present.

F) Linguistics.- Who investigates the different languages ​​and their relationships.

g) Anthropology.- Who studies the man.

h) Paleontology.- who studies the fossil remains (of human beings, animals; etc.)

i) We can also include, although to a lesser degree, other branches of knowing how:
Social Sciences (Sociology, Economics, Law, etc.); Biology, Psychology, and others.

Dependent auxiliary sciences:

In this second category, that is, in that of the sciences that were created for the service of History, and that for that reason can be called subordinate, we find:

1.- Paleography.- Intended for the study of ancient writings and signs.

2.- Numismatics.- Who studies the old coins and medals.

3.- Epigraphy.- Who studies the inscriptions.

4.- The Bibliography.- That it refers to the knowledge of books and codices.

5.- Archivology or archivonomy.- That allows to have knowledge for the formation of archives.

6.- Sigilography.- That helps to know the stamps, which were and still are used before to legalize documents or to legalize them.

7.- The Diplomatic.- That verifies and studies the old documents or diplomas and their authenticity.