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How did Jean Mabillon help create the field of Latin paleography?

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Jean Mabillon is credited with practically creating the field of Latin paleography through the publication of his seminal work, De Re Diplomatica, in 1681.12

As a French Benedictine scholar, Mabillon developed this science to establish rigorous principles for determining the authenticity and dating of medieval manuscripts. By providing a systematic method for analyzing handwriting styles, he enabled scholars to accurately read, date, and localize historical documents.12

His work was fundamentally linked to the birth of diplomatics—the critical study of official documents—as he demonstrated that paleography was an essential tool for verifying historical sources. De Re Diplomatica emerged from a scholarly controversy regarding the authenticity of Merovingian charters, and it remains the foundational textbook for the scientific study of Latin scripts.12