Mabillon, Jean

Mabillon, Jean (zhäN mäbēyôN') [key], 1623–1707, French scholar, a Benedictine monk. His De re diplomatica (1681; with a supplementary volume, 1704) was the first attempt to develop a critical method of determining the authenticity of documents. Mabillon thus created the science of diplomatics, which made historiography far more scientific. The work remains a classic in its field.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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