La critique de l’étude rédigée par Silviu Dragomir sur le Diplôme des chevaliers de St. Jean
Critique of the Study Developed by Silviu Dragomir Regarding the Diploma of the Knights of St. John

Summary/Abstract: The study dedicated to the Diploma of the Hospitallers (1247), as well as his entire work of historical research, despite preconceived notions of the Habsburgs and Jesuits, had truth as its main purpose. Preventing the professor, in the last years of his life, from presenting his conclusions publicly, stopped the absolutely necessary debate on the subject. Keeping the “Dragomir collection” in the “Secret Documents” category only fueled new suspicions, preventing specialists from ruling out and dispelling doubts. All the avatars of the study only reveal the honesty of the researcher confronted with a hostile world, as well as the harshness of the times of communist dictatorship that drastically restricted freedom of expression. The suspicions were both directed at the Diploma of the Hospitallers—which seemed “defended” with dishonest means by the communists—and at the author of the study—which could appear in the eyes of some in an unfavorable light. However, the publication of the text shows, on the one hand, the great meticulousness of the research and how serious the historian’s craft was, and, on the other hand, that the incriminated document is valid. Silviu Dragomir’s serious analysis therefore remains a research model of the Middle Ages, being edifying for the historian’s working method. Without the knowledge of this study, with all its variants and avatars, the last word on the historical method and conception of the great specialist cannot be said.

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