Schön oder/und notwendig – Sinnlose und/oder sinnvolle Definitionen zu Illuminierten Urkunden

The topic of this paper is visual elements of charters that are not just writing – a new definition of “graphical components”. My point of view as an art historian is confronted with the approach of diplomatics. The medial relevance of visual elements that constitute documents as a "text type" and their strength to function as logos for institutions will be considered.

The long term project “Illuminated Charters” is presented and common goals with the ongoing BeCoRe project are mentioned. A “meta-level” of the paper is the question of how the material can be structured. The controlled vocabulary that has been successfully used for more than 4000 illuminated charters is presented.