Research

The research method for the implementation of the proposed project is based on the critical analysis of primary documentary historical sources and a rich array of secondary literature. In order to achieve a high-quality completion of the research, the team uses a variety of working methods related to the various tasks.

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Working with diplomatic and personal correspondence from the 17th century, for example, has its own peculiarities related to its handwritten form. The reading and transcribing (if necessary) of the primary sources involved depends on the specifics of the different handwriting of the authors of the documents. To somewhat facilitate reading, specialized text recognition software can be used - Transkribus, known to the team members from previous work with early modern manuscripts. Despite the undeniable benefits of the program, it should be noted that it can only have auxiliary functions in reading the documents. In order to facilitate subsequent analysis and work on individual work packages within the project, a documentary database will be built.

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The methods of work on this project also include the use of “key cases” (“case studies”), which allows for the detailed examination of selected aspects of the research problem. Working on these key cases allows for the examination of topics through the historical method, analysis and synthesis. The comparative method and the generalization method are also advocated. The analysis and synthesis method is applied to distribute the research problem into individual cases that can be developed in depth. The comparative method and the generalization method are also advocated, which allow for the transition from the particular to the general and to derive more general theses that are related to the overall topic of the project and offer in-depth generalizations.

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Since the focus of the study is on the human factor, the biographical approach is also applied in the work of the team on scientific research tasks.