DIPLOMATICS

the study of documents. The term is derived from the Greek word diploma, meaning doubled or folded. Besides the documents of legal and administrative import withwhich it is properly concerned, diplomatics also includes the study of other records such as bills, reports, cartularies, registers, and rolls. Diplomatics is therefore a basic and not simply an auxiliary historical science. This article deals with the development and practice of diplomatics in the Roman Empire and in Europe. During Roman antiquity certain documents containing different sorts of authorizations were engraved on a bronze diptych and then folded and sealed, in order to keep the contents secrethence the term diploma. Rarely found during the Middle Ages, the word was used by the Renaissance Humanists to denote formal documents of ancient rulers. The interest in and description of such documents came to be called res diplomatica after the famous 17th-century work De Re Diplomatica Libri VI, by Jean Mabillon, a member of the scholarly Benedictine congregation of Saint-Maur. Mabillon's work first made the study of old documents a reputable science. The major task of diplomatics is to distinguish between genuine and false documents, and this involves detailed examination of their external and internal features. Diplomatic studies have been applied mainly to Western documents, usually medieval ones, because it requires less specialist training to analyze more recent documents. the study of documents, including documents of legal and administrative import, and public records. The major task of diplomatics is to distinguish between genuine and false documents; diplomatic studies have been applied in particular to Western documents of the Middle Ages. Diplomatics originated during the Middle Ages in response to the large numbers of forgeries resulting from the loss of records during wartime and the new need for written substantiation of previously unwritten customary law. It was not until the 17th century, however, that attempts to detect forgeries began to adhere to strict, scientific methodology. Jean Mabillon, a Benedictine monk, published De Re Diplomatic Libri VI in 1681, in which he set out the fundamental principles of verifying documents. His work was extended by Ren-Prosper Tassin and Charles-Franois Toustain in Nouveau trait de diplomatique (175065), and in 1821, the cole des Chartes was founded in Paris for the training of archivists. In Germany and Austria, scholars furthered the science of diplomatics by differentiating between actum and datum (i.e., between verbal legal procedure and its formal documentation) and by developing a technique to authenticate the writing of individual notaries or scribes. Today, documents are classified in various ways, including public and private, and evidentiary and dispositive. A document may be either original (drawn up on the order of the sender or donor and designated as evidence of the transaction) or a copy (made before or after the deed was actually sealed; copies made before are technically rough drafts). Certification of a copy by a notary can provide it with the same legal value as an original. To gauge the authenticity of a document, the diplomatic scholar studies the ink used and material on which it was written, the language and abbreviations used therein, its script style, its form and content, its date, and finally the material composition of its seal. Throughout history, documents were written on, and with, a variety of materials. Stone, metal, wax, papyrus, and parchment held the writings of antiquity; in the Middle Ages, parchment and papyrus were common, although paper was sometimes available in the 12th and 13th centuries, after which it became the material of choice. All documents were written with ink, but the colour varied from region to region. The language used in documents throughout the Roman Empire was primarily Latin; toward the end of the 6th century AD it was superseded in the East by Greek, which remained in force in the Byzantine Empire through 1453. With few exceptions, Latin was the primary language used in Western documents until the 15th century, when the vernacular also became acceptable. In addition to the language used, the particular characteristics of the abbreviations in a document also contribute to a correct assessment of its probable date and provenance. Script styles provide telling evidence as to the authenticity of a document, since certain styles were dominant in some eras and disused in others. Thus, the knowledge of paleography, different styles of ancient writing, is a skill essential to diplomatics. The form and content of documents, especially in comparison to model texts used by chanceries (letter offices of rulers and popes) provide valuable insight into their authenticity. In the case of common documents, notaries copied from books in which text formulas had been collected, adding the pertinent individual information. Official documents were normally divided into three parts: the introduction, the main text, and the concluding formula. Each of these parts contained certain standard subject matter, such as an invocation to the deity; documents which fail to adhere to standards of format and content may be of questionable validity. The date on a document is also a clue to its validity. The date may be that of legal enactment (actum) or that of the issue of the document recording the (already performed) legal enactment. Dates varied depending on what calendar system was used, so the form in which the date is given is exceedingly useful in determining provenance and authenticity. Finally, authenticity of a document can be judged by analyzing the appropriateness of the seal. Byzantine emperors, for instance, used gold seals, whereas ecclesiastics and officials of the realm used lead and silver. Most formal documents were drawn up in chanceries throughout the Roman and Byzantine empires, in a tradition that continued through the Middle Ages and into the 17th century, at which time departmentalization obviated the need for a central letter office. Documents issued through chanceries included laws, edicts, decrees, foreign letters, administration, writs, charters, privileges, and others. For the most part, diplomatic studies have been applied mainly to Western documents, usually medieval or earlier in issue, because the validation of more recent documents requires less specialized training. Additional reading Harry Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre fr Deutschland und Italien, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (1912), vol. 2, pt. 1 (1914), vol. 2, pt. 2, ed. by H.W. Klewitz (1931, all reprinted 1958, with separate index), although somewhat out of date, still the best handbook by far for Germany and Italy; Oswald Redlich, Die Privaturkunden des Mittelalters (1911, reprinted 1967), an excellent work on the private documents of the Middle Ages; Leo Santifaller, Beitrge zur Geschichte der Beschreibstoffe im Mittelalter, pt. 1 (1953), the most up-to-date account of the history of writing materials during the Middle Ages; Franz Dolger and Johannes Karayannopulos, Byzantinische Urkundenlehre die Kaiserurkunden (1968), the only study of the documents of the Byzantine emperors; C.R. Cheney, The Study of the Medieval Papal Chancery (1966), an excellent general survey of modern research; R.L. Poole, Lectures on the History of the Papal Chancery down to the Time of Innocent III (1915), the best book in English on this subject, though now out of date; Peter Herde, Beitrge zum ppstlichen Kanzlei- und Urkundenwesen im 13. Jahrhundert, 2nd ed. (1967); and Audientia litterarum contradictarum, 2 vol. (1970), on papal letters of justice; Wilhelm Erben, Die Kaiser- und Knigsurkunden des Mittelalters in Deutschland, Frankreich und Italien (1907, reprinted 1967), an excellent supplement to Bresslau on the imperial and royal documents of the Middle Ages in Germany, France, and Italy; Georges Tessier, Diplomatique royale franaise (1962), the best and most up-to-date handbook on the royal French diplomatic; Alain de Bouard, Manuel de diplomatique franaise et pontificale (1929), a handbook on French and papal diplomatic; F.M. Stenton, The Latin Charters of the Anglo-Saxon Period (1955), a good brief survey on research since the 18th century; P.H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters (1968), the most up-to-date annotated list and bibliography; R.C. van Caenegem, Royal Writs in England from the Conquest to Glanvill (1959), the best book on writs; V.H. Galbraith, An Introduction to the Use of the Public Records (1934) and Studies in the Public Records (1948), two works especially useful for the later periods; C.R. Cheney, The Records of Medieval England (1956) and English Bishops' Chanceries 11001250 (1950); T.F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, 6 vol. (192033), the basic work on the subject, including the chancery; Harry Bresslau, International Beziehungen im Urkundenwesen des Mittelalters, Archiv fr Urkundenforschung, 6:1976 (1918), the only survey on international relations in the documentary system of the Middle Ages; Horst Enzensberger, Beitrge zum Kanzlei- und Urkundenwesen der normannischen Herrscher Unteritaliens und Siziliens (1971), the most up-to-date account of the chancery and documents of the Norman rulers in southern Italy and Sicily; H.O. Meisner, Archivalienkunde vom 16. Jahrhundert bis 1918 (1969), the best study of records from the 16th century through 1918 for central Europe, especially Germany; Charles Carter, The Western European Powers, 15001700 (1971), a very useful survey on archives and their records. All the cited works have comprehensive bibliographies, with some of them also containing bibliographies of editions and facsimiles of documents. H. Thomas Hickerson, Archives and Manuscripts: An Introduction to Automated Access (1981), discusses specific concern of the contemporary archives business.