Practice question · Sort into groups
A medieval charter records the grant of a mill. Sort each item: witting testimony or unwitting?
Groups: Witting testimony · Unwitting testimony
- The pious formula asserting the grantor’s motive
- The obligations everyone assumed and nobody explained
- Who is granted the mill and on what terms
- The forms of address that reveal the social hierarchy
Hints
- One category is what the author meant to tell you.
- The other is what the document reveals without intending to.
Show the answer
Witting testimony: Who is granted the mill and on what terms, The pious formula asserting the grantor’s motive
Unwitting testimony: The forms of address that reveal the social hierarchy, The obligations everyone assumed and nobody explained
Why
The witting column is what the author wanted you to know, and where every motive to distort is concentrated. The unwitting column is what they could not help revealing. The second is usually more reliable and almost always more interesting.
Practise Primary vs Secondary Sources
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
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