October 5–9, 2026, Toledo (Spain)
DiploMA
Org. Paul Bertrand, Arianna D’Ottone, Antonella Ghignoli, José Ignacio Sánchez Sánchez, Jaime Ruano Benito.
Organized by the École Française de Rome (programa DiploMA), IRHT-UPR841 (CNRS), UCLouvain (FNRS), Sapienza Università di Roma – Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo, Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) and Universidad de Sevilla (Departamento de Historia Medieval y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas).

The history of diplomatic writing and its practices is not only a research theme widely explored in recent years; it is also a critical framework necessary for successfully conducting doctoral research on medieval archives. This doctoral school offers training in diplomatics, the history of scriptuality, production, use, and conservation of practical and pragmatic writing in the Middle Ages for doctoral students seeking to strengthen their knowledge. The program will cover documentary typology (charters, recording and copying, administrative and management documents), the history of writing practices, and diplomacy in a broader sense.
A distinctive feature of this school is its deliberate connection to the crossroads of written cultures in the Mediterranean basin. It aims not only to approach Latin or European vernacular diplomatic writing but also all other diplomatic written cultures on an equal footing: Byzantine, Muslim, Hebrew, African (especially Ethiopian). The choice of Toledo as the teaching location, at the intersection of Latin, Islamic, and Hebrew cultures, is significant and will allow for fruitful comparisons. The objectives are manifold: establish contact between diplomatic cultures, enable comparisons, open researchers to exchange and questioning of pre-established frameworks and paradigms based on this confrontation, and promote an open understanding of written cultures around the Mediterranean. We have already organized a similar school in Rome from May 6 to 10, 2024.
The training will be offered to selected participants based on their applications. They will benefit from free accommodation for the duration of the doctoral school and their travel expenses will be properly reimbursed.
Candidates are requested to submit their applications with a letter of motivation, a CV, and their thesis project (whether in the initial stages or in progress) to the following address: paul.bertrand@uclouvain.be before April 25, 2026. There are no prerequisites for knowledge of ancient languages, except for the specific field in which the doctoral student intends to conduct their thesis. The scientific committee of the doctoral school, composed of various trainers, will establish a list of selected candidates. Successful candidates will be notified in May 2026.
October 5
Presentation
Introductive talks
Dario Internullo: Il papiro nel Medioevo: declino e caduta di un materiale scrittorio (secoli V-XI) / Papyrus in the Middle Ages: the decline and fall of a writing material (fifth-eleventh century) /Le papyrus au Moyen Âge : déclin et chute d’un matériau d’écriture (Ve-XIe siècle).
Antonella Ghignoli: Ecdotics of ‘remains’ and ‘monuments’. Reflections on the prius of any critical edition of Latin documentary texts, including from a comparative perspective.
Paul Bertrand : Le faux dans les cultures écrites latines, grecques, islamiques et hébraïques au Moyen Âge / Forgery in the Latin, greek, islamic and hebrew written medieval cultures.
October 6
Latin Diplomatics
Visits
Ainoa Castro Correa: Visigothic script(s) in Iberia until the year 1000.
Julio Escalona: Oral memory, local audiences and written records in Northern Iberia, 10th-11th c.
Jaime Ruano Benito: Writing archiepiscopal documents in a multi-cultural city: Toledo (1086-1247).
3 presentations of doctoral students
Maria Cristina Rossi & Arianna D’Ottone: Some Notes on the Arabic and Latin Documents preserved in the Archives of Pisa.
Diego Belmonte Fernandez : Notarial Practice and Episcopal Documentation in Castile at the End of the Middle Ages through the Case of Seville.
October 7
African Diplomatics
Anaïs Wion (Institut des Mondes Africains, CNRS) : Introduction to Christian Ethiopian written cultures : pragmatic documents in Ge’ez, Amharic and Arabic.
Islamic Diplomatics
José Ignacio Sánchez Sánchez: Diplomatic Practices Across Cultures: The Adaptation of Islamic Notarial Handbooks in Mozarabic Toledo (12th–13th Century).
Jeremy Johns : The Arabic and bilingual documents from Norman Sicily in the fondo Messina of the Archivo General of the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli (Toledo).
Amalia Zomeño Rodríguez: Witnesses, Judges, and How to Write Arabic Legal Documents in 15th century Granada.
3 presentations of doctoral students
October 8
Hebrew Diplomatics
Javier Castaño: Authenticated Reproduction of documents (Hatpasah) and Pinqasim in Medieval Sepharad: Diplomatic Perspectives.
Judith Schlanger: To be announced.
Visit
3 + 3 presentations of doctoral students
October 9
Byzantine Diplomatics
Zachary Chitwood: Byzantine Diplomatics: The Potential and Pitfalls of Examining Eastern Mediterranean Society through the Lens of Monastic Archives.
Guilhem Dorandeu: Introduction à la sigillographie médiévale.
Vivien Prigent :L’apport des bulles diplomatiques à la connaissance de l’administration méditerranéenne byzantine.
Cristina Rognoni: Les documents grecs du fond “Messina” de l’Archivo Ducal de la Fondación Medinaceli (Toledo): écriture et pratique juridique byzantines dans la Sicile normande.
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