Diplomatics

Diplomatics is a special historical-philological discipline that studies historical acts and documents (charters, privileges, treaties, universals) — their origin, form, internal structure (the formulary), means of authentication (seals, signatures), and authenticity. The main task of diplomatics is to distinguish genuine documents from forgeries and to establish the time, place, and circumstances of their creation. The discipline analyzes the established structure of an act (protocol, main text, eschatocol) and the fixed formulas (intitulation, inscription, narration, disposition, sanction, corroboration, dating). Diplomatics is closely linked to paleography, sphragistics (the science of seals), and source studies. For Ukrainian history, diplomatics is important in studying the princely charters of the Rus' era, the acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the hetmans' universals of the Cossack era. The foundations of diplomatics as a science were laid in the 17th century by Jean Mabillon; Ukrainian act sources were studied by historians of the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission.