Scrineum

Scrineum is the first e-journal about studies, materials, discussions and instruments regarding the subject usually defined as "Auxiliary History Sciences" or, in the best case, "Paleography and Diplomatics" or "Codicology", from the Academic name given to the nearest teaching subjects. Better, those studies have been defined in the journal subtitle: "On-line essays and materials in medieval text and book sciences"

It is a yearly e-publication (ISSN 1128-5656), of which the complete first number, year 1999, is now available on the Internet. The hypertextual structure conceived by Ansani— who is the real creator of all the aspects of the publication, from the scientific coordination of the editorial staff to graphic choices and page layout — divides the subject in sections, linked among each other, and easily accessible in their single units from a general index in the section "Archivio" (Archives).

In the "Saggi" (Essays) section there are critical essays in a traditional textual form (clickable text and notes) of subjects that, at least in this first number, are about Diplomatics only, more exactly about Communal Diplomatics- if we do not consider Ettore Cau's essay - probably developed from the speeches given by authors themselves at the latest Congress of the International Diplomatics Association: the reader can find essays by Rovere, Puncuh, Fissore.

In the "Cantieri" (Work in progress) section there are many 'diplomatic codices' that are being created by the Diplomatics research groups of Northern Italy directed by the Pavia pilot group (Cau, Barbieri, Ansani): in this number, the diplomatic codices of Brescia and Pavia up to XII century, of which the reader can see the results (we have to underline that this is not possible for many other on-line editorial projects, European too). The editorial by Ettore Cau, who, among his many roles, is the executive director of Scrineum, explains the goals and the reasons of these on-line critical editions.

In the " Biblioteca" (Library) section there are many famous essays, in the field of Diplomatics, written by Fichtenau, Bautier, Petrucci e Pratesi, about the methodological problems and functions of this subject which have been much discussed since the middle of this century, when Diplomatics seemed to have lost its role in the field of History.

In the "Strumenti" (Instruments) section, as you can imagine, there are many useful research instruments: we have to underline, as this is the only authorized web-site to host it, the Yearbook of AIPD (Italian Association of Paleography and Diplomatics scholars), updated by Scrineum staff from its printed 1996 edition by Giuseppe Avarucci and Ugo Paoli.

Through another section like "Strumenti", called "Notiziario" (News) the reader gets some information about congresses and teaching: in the first case readers can have a look at the Calendario della Medievistica (Calendar of Medieval Sciences) manageby the Medieval Informatic Centre of the Department of History - Florence University-, already cited in these Spolia pages.

The "Digressioni" (Digressions) section presents more "open" articles, of course always relating to the scientific interests of the journal, but that can refer to other subjects sharing the same problems or themes.

In the final section "Temi" (Themes), is the essay written by Ansani himself: Diplomatica (e diplomatisti) nell'arena digitale —Diplomatics and Diplomatics Scholars in the digital arena.