La documentazione digitale dell’oggi e la ricerca storica di domani. Gli apporti della diplomatica come “scienza di confine”

The essay deals with the issue of the forthcoming use, as source for historical research, of electronic documentation which in recent years have increasingly accumulated in the archives created by individuals or organizations. Regarding this issue, it is essential to evaluate the authenticity (genuineness) of the electronic documentation used as a historical source, because there are some differences between the traditional analogue documentation and the electronic one that may affect the method to ascertain authenticity. So the essay focuses on the primary role that the most recent research lines of diplomatics can play in identifying how to establish genuineness in the digital environment. In opening up to the study of the electronic documentation, they are shaping diplomatics as a "boundary science", that makes the contributions from other sciences its own. So diplomatics appears to be able to elaborate an overall vision of the electronic documentation.