The current challenges of Diplomatics from an Iberian perspective: the expansion of spatial and chronological horizons, new research fields, the adaptation to new technologies

Abstract

Diplomatics are a scientific discipline which has undergone enormous changes in the last decades, from a specialty oriented essentially to the documentation produced in Christian Western Europe in the early medieval period to a transversal and available method for different chrono‑spatial contexts. Currently
there are works that exploit the Diplomatics method for new issues such as the document of the Modern Ages, the administrative document, the notarial institutition, the mercantile document, the lordly chancelleries, the lay cartularies. In the present work, we intend to make an assessment of the expansion
of the discipline in recent decades and outline the different paths to be taken. We also intend to analyze the relationship of the Diplomatic with new technologies, from the point of view of the possibilities for teaching, as well as, the potential of editing with XML markup languages to expand the knowledge of the discipline.