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2020/2021

Diplomatics

Code: 100328 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500501 History OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Jesús Alturo Perucho
Email:
Jesus.Alturo@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

Completing Palaeography is not compulsory but it will help to set you up for study success, particularly if this is your first time studying at UAB.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Studying Diplomatic, you learn how to check the authenticity of the charters and diplomas. You learn how to make a Diplomatarium, that is, a charter’s collection, with exercises on the process of dating medieval documents, reducing to our current calendar the chronological compute of the ancient and medieval eras; to elaborate an abstract, summarizing the diploma's content while being capable of its critical edition.

Competences

  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Mastering the specific methods and techniques of diplomacy.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
  2. Critically distinguishing an authentic diploma from a false or interpolated one.
  3. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  4. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  5. Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
  6. Reducing to our current calendar the chronological compute of the ancient and medieval eras.
  7. Solving problems autonomously.
  8. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
  9. Summarizing the diploma's content while being capable of its critical edition.
  10. Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.

Content

  1. Diplomatic: definition and main aims.
  2. Concept of diploma or charter.
  3. True or false documents, or forgery through interpolation.
  4. Original documents and copies. Records and cartularies.
  5. Medieval cronology. Reducing to our current calendar the chronological compute of the ancient and medieval eras.
  6. Abstracts.
  7. Diplomatic, Palaeographical, intepretative and critical editions.
  8. Heuristic apparatus, and, where appropriate, how to elaborate the corresponding critical apparatus.
  9. How to make a Diplomatarium, that is, a collection of charters.
  10. Problems related to indexing a Diplomatarium. The problem of the adaptation of old proper names to our current languages.

Methodology

The module aims to develop understanding and practical skills in Diplomatic, based around practical sessions. These will be accompanied by classes that review the theory and will use facsimiles of all the original diplomas. Students will be able to demonstrate skills in initiating and carrying forward an independent programme of practical archivist research, editing a collection of a few diplomas, under supervison of Professor. During the module, students will be encouraged to actively participate in class.

Seminar hours: The module will be taught through a series of weekly lecture workshops and seminars. They will be based on systematic study of primary sources prepared in advance and will involve student-led discussions and presentations. The emphasis throughout is on the acquisition and enhancement of specific skills.

Tutorial hours: tutorials and specific learning exercises (individuals or in a small group). You will be offered guidance about the preparation of the assessed tasks in individual tutorials.

Independent learning: to search archive documents, to be able to read diplomas, to write an essay addressing one of the course themes, self-study.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Diplomatic: concept and main aims 20 0.8 7, 2
Medieval chronology 20 0.8 6
The adaptation of old proper names to our current languages 20 0.8 8, 9
To make a diplomatarium 20 0.8 7, 2, 8, 6, 9
Type: Supervised      
Edition of a collection of a few diplomas 20 0.8 7, 2, 8, 6, 9
Type: Autonomous      
Written work 50 2 7, 2, 8, 6, 9

Assessment

Grading details: active participation in class (10%), quality of the written work (40%) and examination (50%).

In the written activities, spelling, syntactic or lexical errors are taken into account. The penalty can be between 0.1-0.2 points on the final grade for each mistake made. Repeated errors can discount.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Active participation in class 10% 0 0 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 6, 9, 5, 10
Examination (1:30 h.) 50% 0 0 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 6, 9, 5, 10
Written work: edition of a collection of a few diplomas 40% 0 0 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 6, 9, 5, 10

Bibliography

Alturo, Jesús. Chartae Latinae Antiquiores. Part CXII: Spain I. With the assistance of T. Alaix. Dietikon-Zürich: Urs Graf Verlag, 2017. 128 p. Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Alturo, Jesús. Chartae Latinae Antiquiores. Part CXIII: Spain II. With the assistance of T. Alaix. Dietikon-Zürich: Urs Graf Verlag, 2017. 136 p. Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Bresslau, Harry. Manuale di diplomatica per la Germania e l’Italia. Trad. di Anna Maria Voci-Roth. Rome: Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, Ufficio centrale per i beni archivistici, 1998. 1423 p. (Pubblicazioni degli archivi di Stato. Sussidi; 10). Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Cappelli, Adriano. Cronologia, cronografia e calendario perpetuo dal principio dell'èra cristiana ai nostri giorni. 3za ed. Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1969. 602 p. (Manuali Hoepli). Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Giry, Arthur. Manuel de Diplomatique: diplômes et chartes: chronologie technique: éléments critiques et parties constitutives de la teneur des chartes: les Chancelleries: les actes privés. Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1975. 944 p. Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Guyotjeannin, Olivier; Pycke, Jacques; Tock, Benoît-Michel. Diplomatique médiévale. 3e éd. augmentée. Turnhout: Brepols, 1993. 486 p. (L’atelier du médiéviste; 2). Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB. Enllaç al catàleg de la UAB.

Students will also be directed to online resources, in particular digitised diplomas at, eg, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya and other Catalan archives which also Seminari de Paleografia, Diplomàtica i Codicologia has an agreement.