Explain the evolution of manuscripts and the challenges they pose as a historical source over the years?
Explanation:
This answer for this question can be broken down into three parts.
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Different sources of history (1 mark)
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Types of manuscripts and info they contain.(2 mark)
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Challenges of using manuscripts. (2 mark)
Answer:
The sources used by the historians differ according to the period of their study and the nature of their investigation. They mostly rely on coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records for information. The number and variety of textual records increased through the years when paper became cheaper and widely available. Historians use holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes from the past to collect information. Wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples collected manuscripts in their libraries and archives.
Printing press was not invented during this time. Scribers were employed to copy these by hand. As they manually copied manuscripts, they accidentally introduced small changes in words and sentences. These small differences grew over centuries of copying. Apart from this the authors also introduced multiple versions of the same manuscripts over time. The fourteenth-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later. The first version is lost in some large library collections.
Explanation:
This answer for this question can be broken down into three parts.
-
Different sources of history (1 mark)
-
Types of manuscripts and info they contain.(2 mark)
-
Challenges of using manuscripts. (2 mark)
Answer:
The sources used by the historians differ according to the period of their study and the nature of their investigation. They mostly rely on coins, inscriptions, architecture and textual records for information. The number and variety of textual records increased through the years when paper became cheaper and widely available. Historians use holy texts, chronicles of rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and judicial records, and for registers of accounts and taxes from the past to collect information. Wealthy people, rulers, monasteries and temples collected manuscripts in their libraries and archives.
Printing press was not invented during this time. Scribers were employed to copy these by hand. As they manually copied manuscripts, they accidentally introduced small changes in words and sentences. These small differences grew over centuries of copying. Apart from this the authors also introduced multiple versions of the same manuscripts over time. The fourteenth-century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote his chronicle first in 1356 and another version two years later. The first version is lost in some large library collections.
