Diplomatics of Modern Official Documents (Sixteenth - Eighteenth Centuries): Evaluation and Perspectives

The author looks at the science of diplomatics within the context of documents generated from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The study of documents according to set diplomatics categories was complicated by the sheer bulk of documentation due to two reasons—the decentralization of the chancery and the emergence of new types of documents linked to the development of the administrative monarchy. The author advocates the application of diplomatics methods to the study of these modern documents. He also presents several examples that underscore the importance of the form of the document in undertaking the decision processes and activities of an administrative body; also that text edition remains for our own time as well as for earlier periods, the ideal testing ground for the techniques of diplomatics.