Randolph C. Head. Making Archives in Early Modern Europe

Over the past forty years or so, there has been an enormous interest in the nature, development, and influence of archives with a distinct focus on the records of the modern state. While there are important studies of archival work in ancient times and in early modern Europe, studies of complex issues of archival theory and information management tend to focus primarily on the construction, mediation, organization, and description of accumulations of records by burgeoning twentieth-century bureaucracies of the modern industrial state. In an extraordinarily well-researched book, Making Archives in Early Modern Europe: Proof, Information, and Political Record-Keeping, Randolph C. Head argues convincingly that archival questions of authority and meaning, content and form, and arrangement and description were indeed central to governments as far back as the thirteenth century. Information and access to it as a source of power and effective government is a long-established concern. Scholarly interests in medieval and early modern records accumulations often focus on what exists within a particular national framework or specific repository. Head looks at Northern Europe as a whole and argues that beyond what exists, equally important is how did those responsible for records organize, describe, and classify their materials so that these accumulations functioned as politically important information resources within the context of the time of their creation. The book is a history of innovation in two basic functions: First there is an evolution in the nature, purpose, and design of records created; then there is constant rethinking of how best to provide access to these growing accumulations. He points out the complex ways government structures and needs evolved, and how at each stage record keeping was essential. What kind of records were required? How were these records created, stored, and maintained? He begins with the concept of the archivum, the accumulations of charters and documents essential to prove a claim. These were stored in special spaces so they could be called upon when needed. As these information sources began to accumulate and disperse, questions of them continually arose. How could information in these materials best be found? Not simply how to find the document but how to find precise information within a document.

Archaeology · Bureaucracy · Context (archaeology) · Early Modern Europe · Epistemology · Government (linguistics) · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · State (computer science) · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies