historical text
Dated primary source
A historical text is a document or written work from an earlier era, studied for what it reveals about its time.
The term covers primary sources like letters, treaties, and manuscripts, as well as later works that have themselves become artifacts of their period: Shakespeare's plays are historical texts as well as literature.
In academic contexts, reading something as a historical text means analyzing it within its original cultural moment rather than by contemporary standards.
- manuscriptOriginal text before publication
- illuminated manuscriptHand-decorated medieval book
- archiveStored historical records
- chronicleOrdered historical record
- ancientVery old indeed
scroll · parchment · document · primary source · artifact · carbon dating · dusty · faded · yellowed · ink · quill · scholar · translation · annotation · fragment · codex · folio · transcription
historical textcontemporary writing
Recently produced text
breaking news · live coverage · live reporting · predictive text · current affairs
historical textfiction
Imagined narrative work
fictional narrative · novel · fantasy literature · fairy tale · science fiction
historical textoral tradition
Culture passed by speech
oral history · spoken word · folk memory · informal note · live performance
history, historic, historical, historically, historian, historians, historicity, historiography, prehistoric