The Centre Jean-Mabillon (Research laboratory #3624) embodies the collective, interdisciplinary and international aspects of the research conducted in the field of the historical sciences such as they are taught at the Ecole nationale des chartes, of which it is a part.
In September 2012, it took over from the “Histoire, Mémoire, Patrimoine” Laboratory and through its name, shows its desire to further the work of scholars from the modern era and transmit and delve deeper into their methods of historical criticism.
The Centre Jean-Mabillon carries on the work of the Benedictine monks from the congregation of Saint-Maur, created in 1621 and whose seat was the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Jean Mabillon (1632-1707) entered the order in 1664 and composed his De Re diplomatica in 1681.
The Centre Jean-Mabillon works to contribute to the development of historical expertise, on the one hand by reflecting on the sources of the historian, legal expert and philologist, and more particularly on the written sources, their status and uses, and, on the other hand, by encouraging and creating high-quality, innovative research tools (text publications, databases), specifically by utilising digital technology resources.
The purpose of its research is to cover all the processes behind mainly written output from the Middle Ages to the present day, including the different stages:
- production conditions (Track 1 - The culture of writing from the Middle Ages to the 21st century)
- the mechanisms of cultural heritage transmission (Track 2 - The genesis and tradition of written heritage and media: authors, relays and institutions)
- and the conditions for making this historical documentation available to the scientific community (Track 3 - Epistemology and normativity of text and image publications in the digital age)