Paleography and Diplomatics on the Digital Humanities Route: Pathways and Proposals, Universidade de Évora online, May 6–8, 2021

Throughout human history, writing has held indisputable importance. It is a constant presence in our daily lives, not static, but changeable. Its form, its medium and the crafts linked to it have undergone various transformations, according to the time and the circumstances in which they were found.

Interpretation of documentary sources, with their textual richness, is fundamental for historical knowledge. Sciences such as paleography and diplomatics, sigillography, heraldry and codicology, among others, constitute a decisive element in a historian's work. They often, however, end up being relegated to the background and continue to be seen as "auxiliaries" in history. Nevertheless (and despite the work by several researchers), the questions that still arise, the hypotheses that they open and the challenges that they pose to historiographic work constitute a fertile field for advancing the study of them.

We can thus state that the humanities are presently going through a favourable phase in their development, especially with regard to the digital world. In this field, all sciences focused on the study of historiographical sources will be especially pertinent. This is not only on account of the challenges related to conservation and restoration, but also due to the availability of sources and the input that new digital tools can bring to the relationship between researcher and historical documentation. While it was already an interdisciplinary theme, the opportunity to work with new tools and gain access to sources has greatly extended it.

This congress sets out to pose questions and discuss hypotheses for the work of digital humanities in history: What past and what future? What are the paths for palaeography and diplomatics and the other sciences that allow historians’ work to continue? Are we dealing with new practices or new methods of addressing sources and writings? To what extent is preservation possible without evading historical documents? How can computer programming create tools for historians and archives?

We therefore invite all students, technicians and researchers to present their work and bring these or other questions to the debate.

Topics

• Diplomatics
• Paleography
• Sigillography
• Archives
• Agents of writing
• Universities and digital humanities