Essai sur Tite-Live

work by Taine

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June 26, 2026

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Essai sur Tite-Live is a work by Hippolyte Taine, published in 1856. It is a critical study of the Roman historian Livy and his monumental history of Rome. Taine, a prominent 19th-century French thinker and historian, applied his positivist approach, which emphasized scientific methods, to analyze Livy's work. He examined Livy's historical context, his moralistic approach to history, and his literary style. Taine's essay is notable for its early application of scientific principles to literary and historical criticism, exploring the "race, milieu, and moment" that shape an author's work.12

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Hippolyte Taine
Early life and career
…began an essay on Livy, Essai sur Tite-Live (1856), which, despite further criticism of his philosophical outlook, won a prize from the Académie Française. During this period he was also attending lectures in science and gathering the knowledge of physiology that he utilized later in his work on psychology. Reluctant…
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…began an essay on Livy, Essai sur Tite-Live (1856), which, despite further criticism of his philosophical outlook, won a prize from the Académie Française. During this period he was also attending lectures in science and gathering the knowledge of physiology that he utilized later in his work on psychology. Reluctant…
Read More