ABSTRACT
One of the first requirements of a systematic study of historical evidence is that the material should be classified. The historian naturally classifies his material in many ways, according to his own preconceptions and to the objects of his study. It is common, for example, for historians to classify their material into primary evidence and secondary evidence. Primary evidence is evidence produced during the period being studied, while secondary evidence has been in some way reworked, normally by other historians. Other classificatory schemes that have been employed by historians distinguish between literary and archaeological evidence, between written and printed evidence, or between quantitative and qualitative evidence. More detailed schemes of classification can be employed; one may, for example, classify primary evidence according to its source, distinguishing between diaries, legal records, court records, newspapers, election results, commercial records.
