Experimenting with New Tools: Special Diplomatics and the Study of Authority in the United Church of Canada

Abstract

Duranti's recent workshops and her current series of articles in Archivaria are providing Canadian archivists with a hitherto unavailable opportunity to explore that system of theoretical knowledge called general diplomatics.'Professor Duranti's timely arrival in Canada as a resident source of expertise coincides with a longstanding yet latent interest in diplornatics on the part of North American archivists.What then are the sources of our interest in a science traditionally associated with medieval documents which altogether predate our own historical framework?Non-textual records, particularly electronic records, can often seem as esoteric and difficult of access as any medieval document.The medium of the record, a subject of minor interest since paper superseded clay, papyrus, and parchment, regains significance in the age of celluloid, magnetic tape, and assorted disks.*The proliferation of copying technologies, and the re-emergence, through records management, of formalism in bureaucratic documentation, necessitate a precise understanding of the generation, form, and function of single, particular documents in specific administrat i o n ~. ~ Diplomatics, the study of the "elemental archival unit," seems to hold promise as a methodology for gaining this microcosmic per~pective.~Should diplomatics be as essential to the formation of the compleat North American archivist as it is to the compleat European archivist?5 Clearly an affirmative answer must depend on whether diplomatics does have utility in the analysis of the materials in North American archives, which are by definition modern records.The inclusion of diplomatics with law and history in the core curriculum of the Master of Archival Studies programme at the University of British Columbia is based on the conviction that "the study of diplomatics assists the basic functions of identification, arrangement, description and appraisal.'%Canadian archivists' access to the developing theory is much improved, and there is confidence in the future capabilities of diplomatics, but the proof remains in the pudding: the task of applying general diplomatics to our own situations.The moment we apply theory to specific cases, we are engaged in the activity of special diplomatic^.^This article is a sort of copy-book exercise in the grammar of special diplomatics; "copy-book" because it is executed by an apprentice, not a master of the technique, and "grammar" because the neophyte must apply the rules literally, Q All rights reserved: Archivaria 30

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