Early Modern · 1681
On Diplomatics
De Re Diplomatica
Jean Mabillon · 1632–1707
What it is
A method for telling genuine medieval charters from forgeries by their script, formulas, seals, and materials, written after a Jesuit questioned his abbey's documents.
Why it lasted
The founding work of palaeography and diplomatics, and the moment the critical evaluation of documents became a discipline.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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