Everything gets better and better? One might think so: the image of ever-improving research and constant progress in this field is omnipresent. This article examines this problem area in four stages, outlining the issues involved. It begins with an introductory question: what does „state of the art“ actually mean, followed by an excursion into the beginnings of medieval history as a science, before recalling Max Weber’s well-known remarks on the advancement of knowledge. The conclusion points to the search for forgotten medieval research pursued in this volume. The purpose is to build a bridge between the past and the future of the discipline by combining two complementary concerns: first and foremost, the volume aims to encourage classic medieval research, which is often not very theory-oriented, to view its own history not merely as the „past“, but as a profitable source of knowledge within its own work. At the same time, the basic idea behind the volume inevitably extends beyond the narrow field of study and touches on areas of the philosophy of history and epistemology