[Vocabulary] A brief hostory of the essay would start...

[nyggus]

Hi,

Consider these two sentences:

The essay is the basic short form of nonfiction. A brief history of the essay would start in the late sixteenth century with Montaigne writing essays (endeavors), letting the subjective and the objective interwine into a new form of prose. (Italics original)​

This is how Susan M. Tibergien starts the subsection "The Personal Essay" of her book "One Year to a Writing Life". Could you please explain the use of "would" in the second sentence? What purpose does it serve? Would the same sentence but without this "would" have a different meaning?

Thanks,
nyggus

 

[GoesStation]

If someone were to write a history of the essay, the history would start with something set in the late sixteenth century.

Omitting "would" would remove the conditional aspect of the sentence.

 

[nyggus]

Thanks, GoesStation and Piscean. I should have seen this. Indeed: the history of the essay started then, and so a brief history of the essay would start then.

 

[Tdol]

Montaigne is the first name given in the list in this actual history of the essay:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40246392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents