Osignerat

Osignerat is a term used in archival science and paleography to describe documents that do not bear a signature or other explicit attestation of authorship. The term is most commonly encountered in Scandinavian archival practice, where it is used as an attribute in catalog records and inventories to indicate items whose authorship is not directly verifiable from the document itself.

Although the exact formulation varies by language, osignerat generally translates to "unsigned" and signals that the document lacks a formal signature, seal, or witness attestation that would confirm its origin or authority.

Scope and examples: Osignerat can apply to charters, letters, drafts, or administrative records that typically would be signed. In many cases the absence of a signature accompanies other features such as missing seals or the absence of witness attestations; such documents may be drafts, copies, or records produced without final authorization.

Significance: The unsigned status complicates attribution, dating, and legal interpretation. Archivists address this by correlating with other evidence—handwriting analysis, watermark, ink, marginal notes, cross-referenced records, and the provenance of the file. Osignerat items are usually flagged in catalogues to guide researchers in assessing reliability and origin.

See also: signed documents, seals, witnesses, provenance, authenticity, archival metadata.