Les chartes judiciaires russes des xve-xvie s. comme ego-documents. La perception de l’âge et de la mémoire : un reflet de la subjectivité ?

Abstract

At first sight it might seem that judicial documents have nothing in common with the concept of “ego-document”. However, if we consider the presence of a subject expressing him/herself as a key characteristic of this type of source, we can also classify as such the Russian judicial charters of the 15th and 16th centuries, which include the transcription of litigants’ and witnesses’ statements. Although the latter are highly formalised, it is possible to examine them as statements of a subject about his/her experience, his/her environment and him/herself. Then, they provide us with a certain perception of time, age and memory, which appear as traces of subjectivity in medieval Russia – or at least in Russian medieval courts.