Provenance
Where the object came from, how it was transmitted, and which institution shaped its survival.
Sources & provenance
A source is not primary in the abstract.
Its evidentiary role depends on the question asked. The same pamphlet may be testimony for one inquiry, an edition for another, and an object of reception for a third.
Identity
The exact edition, translation, archival unit, catalog record, or digital artifact used.
Verification
The claim, locator, quotation or note, checking status, and article version that cited it.
Rights
Access, licence, permission, reproduction limits, and retrieval date are recorded separately.
Source ledger
What every citation must let a reader recover.
A bibliography names an intellectual work. The source ledger records the exact object used and its role in the argument.
IdentityCreator · title · date · edition or version · language
RepositoryInstitution · collection · series · box · folder · folio or page
IdentifiersArchive ID · DOI · ISBN · catalog ID · stable URI
UseClaim supported · locator · quotation or note · primary/secondary role
MediationTranscription · translation · digitization · alteration · known omission
StewardshipRights · permission · access limits · retrieval date · checksum when retained
Method dossier 001
Marc Bloch and the historian’s craft
This starter dossier identifies texts and archival guides that support the journal’s analytical method. It does not reproduce copyrighted editions or imply that free online access grants reuse permission.
Marc Bloch, Apologie pour l’histoire ou Métier d’historien
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi digital edition
A posthumously published, unfinished methodological work. Free consultation does not itself grant blanket reuse rights.
Open source recordMarc Bloch and Lucien Febvre, “À nos lecteurs” (1929)
Persée · Annales d’histoire économique et sociale
The journal founders’ own case for crossing periods and disciplinary boundaries. A founding aspiration, not a present-day review standard.
Open source recordMarc Bloch fonds, AB XIX 3796–3852 and 4270–4275
Archives nationales de France
The finding aid identifies manuscript and working-note holdings. Access and reproduction permission must be arranged separately.
Open source recordStatement on Standards of Professional Conduct
American Historical Association
Guidance on evidence, retraceable citation, uncertainty, counterevidence, funding, and the relation of primary to secondary sources.
Open source recordNon-negotiable distinctions
The source does not speak alone.
- 01
Primary does not mean sufficient. Evidence is scrutinized in relation to the question and the relevant secondary scholarship.
- 02
Digitized does not mean complete. Selection, description, scanning, search, and interface all mediate the record.
- 03
Accessible does not mean reusable. Copyright, contractual limits, privacy, cultural protocols, and repository rules remain distinct.
- 04
Silence is not absence. The missing record may reflect destruction, non-creation, catalog practice, power, or the limits of the search.