Università Roma Tre

The course aims to present the main characteristics of documents in the Western legal tradition, with particular regard to their value for historical studies. In this regard, the external and internal characteristics of the document will be examined, as well as the cultural panorama of the times and places of production of the main types of documents, placing them in relation with the legal and cultural traditions of the history of the West. In this way, diplomatics is understood as a historical science capable of acting as a fundamental critical support to the historical disciplines, which find in manuscript documentation an important part of their primary sources of study. In particular, attention will be paid to the illustration of documentation of medieval Latin origin, which is particularly complex in its evaluation as a historical document; there will also be an in-depth study of the medieval documentary system of the city of Rome.
This course includes both the examination of reproductions of documents and the direct examination of manuscripts and writing materials, through visits to archives and libraries.

The final exam will include the knowledge of the material provided during the course. Students are required to add the study ofthe following texts:
- Alessandro Pratesi, Genesi e forme del documento medievale, III edizione, Roma, Jouvence, 1999 (Guide, 3);
- Two essays among those distributed during the course