Diplomatics is an indispensable historical auxiliary science. For long periods, the Middle Ages are the quintessential age of documents: thus, documents represent one of the central types of sources for these thousand years of European history. Thomas Vogtherr offers an introduction in this volume to documents as sources, to the scholarly handling of these sources, and to their significance for the exploration of medieval history. He provides the reader with the necessary tools for working with documents from emperors and kings, popes, and other issuers. Furthermore, he addresses essential milestones in the history of science and offers initial suggestions for the evaluation of documents - also within the framework of cultural studies questions. The volume is rounded off with extensive illustrations and further literature references.