Che cos’è un «dato» storico? Una riflessione di metodo fra Big Data, approcci quantitativi e scale di analisi

This paper aims to discuss the possible encounters between big data analysis and historical sciences. After a brief presentation of the new fields of big history and deep history, I will resume the discussion arose around the role of quantitative history during the 1970s. Later I will open a discussion on the importance of using an historical method that that takes into account the nature of the historical data, avoiding any misunderstanding of the sources or a divide between quantitative and qualitative analysis and between scale of analysis. Finally, I focus on the relationship between history and other sciences and the type of historical “generalization” that can contribute to a more critical analysis of the world.