COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WRITTEN SOURCES: INTERDISCIPLINARY POTENTIAL

Abstract

This paper explores the interdisciplinary potential of a comprehensive approach to seventeenth-century written sources as a foundation for reconstructing cultural, socio-political, and linguistic processes of the early modern period. The comprehensive approach is understood as the combined use of source studies, textual criticism, historical linguistics, palaeography, diplomatics, codicology, and digital humanities practices. The study argues that integrating qualitative interpretation with quantitative procedures enhances attribution, dating, and localization of manuscripts, improves the accuracy of interpreting authorial stance and communicative strategies, and facilitates the identification of shifts in genre conventions and written culture norms. Special attention is given to issues of preservation and representativeness, terminological standardization, and the risk of anachronistic meaning-making in translation and commentary. The paper concludes that an interdisciplinary lens not only refines factual reconstructions but also enables analysis of knowledge transmission, power and identity models, discursive practices, and the evolution of language norms. A unified research protocol is proposed, covering material description, selection criteria, verification procedures, and digital documentation of results.