The focus of this paper is the way medievalists have relations to the documents in the daily practice of their métier and, particularly, the challenges and the difficulties faced, especially, by those interested in interdisciplinary researches related to the social history of medicine of the period. Thus, this paper proposes the thinking concerning the methodological procedures, upon extension of the notion of documentary field, incorporating all available evidences and traces of human social experiences at different times and spaces. It also discusses the collections and the large digitization projects of medieval documents and reference works and the impact on the work of medievalists from this side of the Atlantic. Within this practice appears the parallel refinement of the issues and methods of documental criticism.
historical sources; methods; Midlle Ages