Archival Diplomatics

Pre-Requisites: None

Goal: To give you an understanding of the nature of archival documents.

Objectives:

1. To provide an understanding of the characteristics of archival material and mastery of the fundamental archival terminology.
2. To develop the intellectual framework for the systematic identification and critical evaluation of archival material.
3. To enable you to analyze documents on the basis of their form, formation, and consequences.
4. To develop an appreciation of the nature, function, use, and value of documentary evidence of actions and transactions.

CONTENT:

1. The concepts of data, information, document, and archival document.
2. The concepts of authenticity and genuineness; the status, methods, and forms of transmission of archival documents.
3. The juridical system, the concepts of fact and act, and the function of archival documents in relation to them.
4. The persons concurring in the formation of archival documents and the effects they have on their nature.
5. The formation of archival documents and the characteristics they derive from it.
6. The extrinsic and intrinsic elements of archival documents.