La detección filológica de adulteraciones en diplomas medievales

Abstract

Authenticity or falseness of notarial documents from Middle Ages wasn't usually infered by Philologists but by Historians. In this paper I suggest a philological method about that question. However, I recognize that this view would only be complementary of others.

The stages of a philological survey about authenticity could be the following ones: l. A summary of informations from historical studies. 2. A philological and linguistic survey (a search of interpolations; a statement of linguistic characteristics related to the text; a comparison with an external control that is reliable). 3. A final comparison of the conclusions with the previous ones. As examples of the method, I offer the transcription and investigation of copies from two royal diplomas incorporated into the most important manuscript preserved in the Cathedral Archive of Oviedo: the Liber Testamentorum, from XII Century.