Historical societies are part of the social development observable in all European countries. The present comparative study examines the memberships, activities, social aspects, and historical images of such societies in Germany and Italy throughout the 19th century. These societies were much less bourgeois than one might initially suppose. In many areas, the aristocracy was the prime mover, both in Germany and in Italy. The societies were devoted to the cultivation of a very regional form of historical culture. National history, by contrast, was given little attention.