Fixing Documents in late-Carolingian Catalonia

In the last decade or two, at least partly under the influence of Heinrich Fichtenau and his school, the old discipline of diplomatic has begun to broaden out to occupy a conceptual space better described as ‘charter studies’. The processes of redaction, of copying and preservation have all come under closer scrutiny than antiquarian concerns purely with authenticity had permitted, and the effect of this for those like myself who try and describe ourselves as charter historians rather than diplomatists, and who use the evidence of the charters to speak about a wider society, have been considerable. The use of charters in bulk as social, and even statistical, evidence is widely accepted, and some of the difficulties of working from what are mostly ecclesiastically-preserved land transfers are recognised. At the actual parchment surface, the technologies and skills of production and writing have not been neglected. The process of charter production still needs more attention however, because when questions like ‘where was this document made?’—’for whom was it made?’—’why was it made?’ are asked, they still produce generalisations meant to serve for the whole of medieval Europe, in default of anything more detailed.