Summary: | The principles of diplomatics and the methodology of
diplomatic analysis have long been recognized in Europe as
important elements of archival education. However, North
American archivists have tended to view the diplomatic discipline
as archaic and better suited to its traditional use in the study
of medieval European documents than to the study of the records
of modern North American administrations. Objections to the
application of diplomatics to modern documents have focused on
two points: first, that diplomatics is of limited practical
value beyond the demonstration of authenticity, which is the
purpose for which it was first developed; and secondly, that the
nature of modern documents is fundamentally different from the
nature of medieval documents and diplomatics is therefore not
relevant to the study of modern documents. This thesis serves as
a pilot study in the application of diplomatics in a modern
administrative context, and its purpose is to challenge both
these objections.
The framework for this thesis was determined by a
consideration of the unique characteristics of medieval and
modern documents as tools of administrative activity. Given that
a single medieval document typically embodies an entire transaction, while most modern documents embody only a fragment
of a transaction, it was apparent that a diplomatic analysis of a
single modern document would be less conclusive than a similar
analysis of a single medieval document. For a diplomatic
analysis of a single modern document to be meaningful, therefore,
the focus of the study must shift from the single document to the
entire documentary residue of the transaction in which the
document participated. The methodology of the diplomatic
analysis remains unchanged, in that it still begins with an
analysis of a single document, but the overall focus of enquiry
broadens to comprise a sequence of diplomatic analyses of all the
documents which participated in the transaction.
The thesis focuses on two transactions involving the
registration of a deed of land under the Ontario land registry
system, one taking place in 1822 and the other in 1873. In order
to identify all the documents which participated in these
transactions, it was first necessary to examine the legal
requirements for registration as revealed in the relevant
legislation. After the activities required to be undertaken to
complete the registration transaction were identified, these were
then arranged into a logical sequence comprising a single
coherent procedure. In this manner, a separate procedural
outline was constructed for each period in the registry system's
early development, and the documents which participated in each
respective registration transaction were identified according to the procedure governing the transaction at that time.
On the basis of the two procedural outlines, separate
diplomatic studies were undertaken of the documents participating
in each respective transaction. These studies consist of a
sequence of diplomatic analyses of all the documents which
participated in each transaction. The studies reveal the
changing nature of both the documents and the procedure, and this
information is expressed in a consistent and standardized manner
according to the terminology of diplomatics. The importance of
this information for the arrangement, description and appraisal
of these documents confirms the relevance of the diplomatic
analyses to the study of modern documents.
In conclusion, the principles of diplomatics are very much
relevant to an understanding of modern documents. The results of
the two diplomatic studies confirm that the methodology of
diplomatics can successfully be applied to a modern
administrative context and can be used by archivists in varying
degrees of completeness and formality in order to uncover
information critical to the arrangement, description and
appraisal of modern documents. In revealing, through an analysis
of a document's forms, the nature of the document in terms of its
procedural context and the circumstances of its creation,
diplomatics has the capacity to help facilitate the management of
modern North American archives. === Arts, Faculty of === Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of === Graduate
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