Documents and Chanceries between East and West

The articles in this volume focus on the beginnings and fundamental concepts of documentary practice in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe: the creation, authentication and preservation of charters and other types of records. A common theme linking the various essays is the the geography of regional influence. Most parts of medieval Eastern Europe developed outside the sphere of influence of Roman written culture; therefore, the specific trajectories of the spread of Christian institutions were crucial for the development of local documentary practices. Interactions also arose through personal contacts of a familial or institutional nature. Likewise, the objects themselves – charters, other types of charters, seals, registers – as well as different languages can be seen as influencing factors. The papers therefore deal with the broader phenomenon of cultural transfer, a topic to which diplomatic studies, which have always been comparative in nature, have long been devoted.