The study proposes a new, systematically oriented concept of 'historical drama', on the basis of which it then presents a history of this genre from humanism to the Enlightenment. This general outline is consistently geared to the culture-historical context, the contemporaneous discussion on historiography, and the changes undergone by the theory of history. It is complemented by analyses of individual dramas by such authors as Frischlin, Sachs, Gryphius, Lohenstein, Gottsched, Lessing, and Klopstock. This study represents the first large-scale attempt to discuss and describe historical drama in the early modern age from the perspective of literary history.