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Ancillary fields of Historical Auxiliary Sciences

In historical science a group of ancillary fields has evolved which are called . These
fields are part of the requisite know-how needed by historians. Traditionally, the
following fields are subsumed under this category:

 paleography (study of ancient writings and inscriptions)


 codicology (study of manuscripts as cultural artifacts)
 diplomatics (study of charters)
 modern diplomatics (study of files including the study of writings of the modern era)
 sphragistics (study of seals)
 chronology (study of the measuring of time and the assignment of proper dates to
events)
 heraldry
 historical geography
 genealogy (study of people's descent and relatives)
 numismatics (study of coins, tokens, and paper money)

This group of ancillary fields, however, is still undergoing change:


Modern paleography (ie the study of writings of the modern era) is
seen as the continuation of medieval paleography rather than as
being part of the study of files of the modern era. Historical geography
deals both with places and regions of the past and with their
cartographic representation. More and more specialised research
studies deal with registers as an independent type of documents in
archives. In addition, entirely new fields emerge, such as

 medieval and modern epigraphy


 study of medieval realia or
 historical computing

three fields which have become ancillary fields in their own right.
Statistical findings and methods have also become an indispensable tool for the study of
history. This shows how the distinction between individual fields has blurred: although
fields like the study of Medieval Latin have never regarded themselves as ancillary fields
they are in fact in many cases ancillary sciences for the study of history. Thus the
ancillary fields of geschichtliche Hilfswissenschaften are scientific fields in their own
right; they have their own distinctive methods and approaches and are areas for
specialised study and research. This is why they have their own sections on this site.
Naturally one could find arguments both in favour and against including some of the
sections in this site; the same applies to placing some of the links in these sections. We
hope that the selected structure will provide some orientation based on what Historische
Hilfswissenschaften always have also been: a set of tools for the study of history.

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