Written sources of history

• Written sources are usually categorized in three ways:

  1. Narrative or literary
  2. diplomatic or juridical
  3. social documents
• chronicles or tracts presented in narrative form, written to impart a message whose motives for their composition vary widely.

  Narrative or literature
• are understood to be those which document/record an existing legal situation or create a new one, and it is these kinds of sources that professional historians once treated as the purest, the "best" source.

  Diplomatic sources
• The classic diplomatic source is the charter, which a legal instrument.
• is usually sealed or authenticated to provide evidence that a legal transaction has been completed and can be used as evidence in a judicial proceeding in case of dispute

  Legal Document
• are information pertaining to economic, social, political, or judicial significance.

  Social Documents