Digital optics: micro and macro in historical research

The concept of “digital optics” is introduced in the article in relation to historical research. The content of the concept is revealed, and its characteristics are given. Digital optics is understood as a combination of approaches, methods, and tools based on digital technologies that allow researchers to “scale” the objects, events and periods under consideration, to study them in different time and spatial intervals, and to change these intervals within the same historical research. The article gives a general description of microhistory and macrohistory as methodological approaches and fields of historical research. This is done mainly based on historiographical works. The study draws attention to the merits and limitations of the two approaches. The necessity of combining macro- and microhistorical approaches, methods and technologies in historical research, as well as the need for holistic knowledge and presentation of history, are substantiated. This combination is considered both from the point of view of the possibility of reaching generalizations through microanalysis, and from the point of view of the possibility of understanding local events and objects through global optics. The foundations of digital optics and its methods are considered, and the examples of research and projects on different topics are given. The possibilities of digital optics and mathematical tools are revealed in micro- and macrohistorical studies, in overcoming their limitations, and in ensuring their unity. Digital optics methods are also analyzed from the perspective of the individual and the mass in history, in particular, through the processing of mass historical sources. The author also pay attention to the concept and methods of analyzing big data in history.