Abstract

The essay explores the trends of historiography on Luther. It highlights how ancient prejudices on Luther have influenced historiography, both depicting him as a confessional hero or despising him, as Grisar does. It's not a coincidence that Ernesto Buonaiuti, leading figure of italian modernism, writes a Luther's biography which could have been a token of his missed appeasement with Roman-Catholic Church. Postwar historiography will seek a different path which will lead to the 1983 centenary: when the students of Bainton's translator Delio Cantimori will demand what Giuseppe Alberigo would later have been called Luther's 'confessional ransom'.