Diplomatics: Modern archival method or medieval artifact

Abstract

This case study applies the principles of General Diplomatics and the analysis of Special Diplomatics to modern documents at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Special Collections and University Archives and the University of Massachusetts Archives. The information obtained from the application of diplomatics was then compared to information gleaned from administrative sources, such as procedural manuals, to determine if diplomatics revealed sufficient new information about the files to justify such a detailed analysis of records. This case study revealed that the use of Special Diplomatics is not justified, but that the principles of General Diplomatics could be very useful to the modern archivist.