Diplomáticas

Diplomáticas is the feminine plural form of the Spanish adjective diplomática, meaning related to diplomacy or to diplomats. It appears in everyday politics and international relations in phrases such as relaciones diplomáticas (diplomatic relations), prácticas diplomáticas (diplomatic practices), protocolos diplomáticos (diplomatic protocols), and misiones diplomáticas (diplomatic missions).

In scholarly contexts, the term diplomática refers to a discipline that studies historical documents. Diplomática analyzes the creation, transmission, authenticity, dating, and provenance of records such as charters, decrees, treaties, seals, and notarial acts. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws on paleography (reading ancient scripts), sigillography (study of seals), philology, and archival science to establish the authority and legal value of documents and to reconstruct historical events.

Key concerns in diplomática include the identification of source material, the dating and dating controversies, the examination of the document’s physical features (script, writing instruments, materials), and the interpretation of formulae and customary practices used in different periods and regions. The discipline supports historians, archivists, and jurists by providing methods to verify authenticity and to understand how documents functioned within their legal and administrative contexts.

Today, the term also intersects with digital records, metadata, and electronic signatures, reflecting the evolving nature of documentary evidence. Overall, diplomáticas functions as both a linguistic descriptor in diplomacy and a scholarly framework for evaluating documentary sources within historical and legal investigations.