Local history and hermeneutics

The author offers his reflection on the relationship between local history and hermeneutics from the following questions: Does hermeneutics have some role in the search for sources of information about the topic or object of research? What function can hermeneutics have in internal or external criticism of the documents and of the events? In a given moment, what should be interpreted? Is the hermeneutic act “particular” with reference to the production of the text? In this fashion the importance of hermeneutics in the work of the historian and as part of all of the historiographical process is considered, just as heuristics and criticism is.