René II, duke of Lorraine (1473-508) and duke of Bar (1480-1508), is the first prince of Lorraine whose deeds were recorded regularly: 6090 deeds were copied on 2500 folios during 35 years. These cuaterni, made up of eleven registers at the beginning of the sixteenth century, form the beginning of the "Patent Letters" series of the dukes of Lorraine and the first signatures of the B series of the Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, ie B1 to B11. In 1949 Étienne Delcambre published a directory listing the names of people and places, with many approximations (É. Delcambre, Inventaire sommaire des Archives départementales antérieures à 1790, Meurthe-et-Moselle: série B, Lettres patentes des ducs de Lorraine et de Bar, index alphabétiques, I, Lettres patentes du duc René II (1473-1508), registres B1 à 11, Nancy, 1949).
Under the scientific responsibility of Hélène Schneider (University of Nancy 2), the patent letters were the subject of a new digital directory since 2007. The database was conceived thanks to the ATILF (UMR 7118, Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française) and it is available at this address. It analyzes each deed as well as the personal and place names. It is possible to consult the digitalized registers on the website of Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle by selecting a signature.