Archives, Sources and Historical Sciences
Sources play a central role in the research of any historian whose primary mission has always been to locate, analyse, interpret and value the traces of people's presence, activities, feelings, mentalities, beliefs and memorial legacies over time. In the case of written sources, the role of archives and libraries and, of course, archivists and librarians has been decisive not only for their safekeeping (and conservation), but also for their dissemination and social valorisation, namely through the production of documentation description tools and their availability to researchers and other readers.
In recent years, new technologies have developed and put at the service of archivists and historians research tools that facilitate research tasks and allow the cross-referencing of sources kept in different funds and archives inside and outside Portugal. Even so, in general, and regardless of the extent and nature of the archives in question, it is not uncommon to find installation units with very incomplete descriptions, in which not even the number of documents that make it up is mentioned. This situation, aggravated by the dispersion of documentation from the same institution across several archives, continues to pose immense challenges for the historian in the heuristic phase.
It is therefore essential to know what is in each archive and that this information is available to all those who need it. This knowledge will guide the historian when faced with endless documentation with the most varied contents, typologies, chronologies, production and dissemination contexts, among many other variables. In order to analyse it in its many forms, the researcher must master specific skills and knowledge in the fields of palaeography, diplomatics, codicology, sigillography, chronology, historical linguistics and heraldry, among others.
Therefore, with the aim of exploring the world of archives, the sources that are preserved there and the sciences that focus on analysing them, we welcome proposals for articles to be published in a themed issue of the Boletim do Arquivo da Universidade de Coimbra.
This issue is intended to cover a range of studies that could be included in the following thematic areas:
- Archives, historical archivistics, custodial and archival history;
- Chancelleries, diplomatic forms and typologies;
- Documentation production centres;
- Documents, cartularies, tombs and chancellery record books;
- Notaries;
- Codices, illuminations and bindings;
- Palaeography;
- Literacy, the history of books and reading;
- Seals and sigillographic practices.
We welcome studies that focus on a single discipline or are the result of interdisciplinary approaches, as well as studies on any other topic that falls within the scope of Palaeography, Diplomatics, Codicology, Sigillography, Heraldry (as long as it is integrated into archival sources) or any other science in which History is relevant.
Texts must not exceed 60000 characters (with spaces) and must include the title, abstract and keywords in two different languages (one of which must be Portuguese), as well as a final bibliography. The other rules for presenting texts can be consulted at https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/boletimauc/about/submissions. Texts for this thematic issue must be sent to the e-mail arquivos.fontesbauc@gmail.com, together with the identification of the author(s), his/her/their institutional affiliation, ORCID and e-mail contact, and will be subjected to scientific review.
