Diplomatic or Semi-diplomatic Transcriptions
Danielle Mihram, March 2017
DefinitionPeter Beal’s definition of a “diplomatic transcription” is as follows:
“A diplomatic transcription of a document is one that reproduces faithfully and accurately, or as closely as is possible, verbatim et literatim, the exact form of the original, such as the precise original spelling and punctuation, including abbreviations, deletions, and word changes” (Beal 121).
The term Diplomatics (American English, or Diplomatic [British English]) is defined by archivist Luciana Duranti as:
“the discipline which studies the genesis, forms, and transmission of archival documents, and their relationship with the facts represented in them and with their creator, in order to identify, evaluate and communicate their true nature” (Duranti 45).
A Diplomatic copy, edition, is an exact reproduction of official or original documents, charters , or manuscripts. It seeks to reproduce as accurately as possible, in typography, all significant features of the original manuscript, including spelling and punctuation, abbreviations, deletions, insertions, and other alterations. Similarly, a diplomatic transcription attempts to represent, by means of a system of editorial signs, all features of a manuscript original (Pass 144). The term semi-diplomatic is used for an edition or transcription that seeks to reproduce only some of these features of the original. A diplomatic edition or a semi-diplomatic edition are distinguished from normalized editions in which the editor, while not altering the original wording of the text, renders it using modern orthography.
History of the Discipline
The principles of diplomatics were first laid out in 1681 by Jean Mabillon (a French Benedict monk, 1632 –1707) in De re diplomatica (Mabillon, 1681). The discipline originally evolved as a tool for studying and determining the authenticity of the official charters and diplomas issued by royal and papal chanceries. It evolved in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because of the need to establish the authenticity of archival documents in order to prove patrimonial rights. It provided the foundation for modern historical methodology and the legal theory of evidence. It was subsequently recognized that many of the same underlying principles could be applied to other types of official documents and legal instruments, as well as to non-official documents such as private letters, and, most recently, to the metadata of electronic records.
For present-day scholars, diplomatics is concerned essentially with the analysis and interpretation of the linguistic elements of a document. It is closely associated with several parallel disciplines, including palaeography, sigillography, codicology, and provenance studies, all of which are concerned with a document's physical characteristics and history, and which will often be carried out in conjunction with the diplomatic analysis of documents.
Sources:
Beal, Peter (2008). A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, 1450-2000. Oxford University Press.
https://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=3423338{CKEY}
Duranti, Luciana (1998). Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, in association with the Society of American Archivists and the Association of Canadian Archivists.
https://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=1432453{CKEY}
Mabillon Jean (1681). De re diplomatica libri VI. Luteciae Parisiorum : Billaine. The 1789 edition of this title is available at USC’s Special Collections:
https://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=1156066{CKEY}
Pass, Gregory A. (2003). Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.
https://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=2015122{CKEY}