Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe
Proof, Information, and Political Record-Keeping, 1400–1700

£36.99

  • Date Published: August 2020
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781108462525

£ 36.99
Paperback

Add to cart Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • European states were overwhelmed with information around 1500. Their agents sought to organize their overflowing archives to provide trustworthy evidence and comprehensive knowledge that was useful in the everyday exercise of power. This detailed comparative study explores cases from Lisbon to Vienna to Berlin in order to understand how changing information technologies and ambitious programs of state-building challenged record-keepers to find new ways to organize and access the information in their archives. From the intriguing details of how clerks invented new ways to index and catalog the expanding world to the evolution of new perspectives on knowledge and power among philologists and historians, this book provides illuminating vignettes and revealing comparisons about a core technology of governance in early modern Europe. Enhanced by perspectives from the history of knowledge and from archival science, this wide-ranging study explores the potential and the limitations of knowledge management as media technologies evolved.

    • The first fully comparative study of European political archives between the Middle Ages and modernity
    • Systematically investigates what records nascent European states kept, how they were kept, and how they became accessible (or not)
    • Draws extensively on the latest archival theory, incorporating an interdisciplinary perspective
    Read more

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Head's reach is remarkable as he tracks the concepts and practices, the people and motives behind the explosive growth of administrative archives between 1200 and 1700 across a wide swath of European polities. He combines deep dives into little-known sources with judicious reflection on the impact of archives on both early modern governance and current historical practice.' Ann Blair, Carol H. Pforzherimer Professor, Harvard University, Massachusetts

    'This book provides a new understanding of different modes of organizing records and archives as shaped by medial and governance processes in Europe, between 1400 and 1700. Archives are presented as cultural and political sites being shaped by cultural and political actors. Randolph Head shows how the comparative approach - spanning places, times, languages, and cultures - is a powerful analytical tool and an invaluable method of historical investigation.' Eric Ketelaar, Universiteit van Amsterdam

    'A remarkably learned exploration of finding tools, record-keeping methods and pre-modern archival theories across many European countries. Randolph Head brings order to the expanding field of the history of archives by tracing the sometimes desperate efforts of late medieval and early modern archivists who tried to order their own growing masses of documents. Highly recommended.' Filippo de Vivo, Birkbeck, University of London

    'This in-depth, scholarly history is ideal for librarians, archivists, graduate students, and scholars of history, particularly the history of books.' A. H. Widder, Choice

    '… the main merit of the book lies in its finely calibrated balance between a general discourse on the role played by archives in the formation of European statehood and the presentation of specific documents, archives, and inventories.' Marco Cavarzere, German Historical Institute London Bulletin

    'The book is a tremendous contribution to the history of archives and of early modern Europe.' Francis X. Blouin Jr., American Historical Review

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: August 2020
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781108462525
    • length: 366 pages
    • dimensions: 230 x 153 x 20 mm
    • weight: 0.45kg
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    Foreword: writing the history of archives
    1. Introduction: records, tools and archives in Europe to 1700
    2. Archival history: literature and outlook
    Part I. The Work of Records (1200– ):
    3. Probative objects and Scholastic tools in the High Middle Ages
    4. A late medieval chancellery and its books: Lisbon, 1460–1560
    5. Keeping and organizing information from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century
    6. Information management in early modern Innsbruck, 1490–1530
    Part II. The Challenges of Accumulation (1400– ):
    7. The accumulation of records and the evolution of inventories
    8. Early modern inventories: Habsburg Austria and Würzburg
    9. Classification: the architecture of knowledge and the placement of records
    10. The formal logic of classification: topography and taxonomy in Swiss urban records, 1500–1700
    Part III. Comprehensive Visions and Differentiating Practices (1550– ):
    11. Evolving expectations about archives, 1540–1650
    12. Registries: tracking the business of governance
    Part IV. Rethinking Records and State Archives (1550– ):
    13. Understanding records: new perspectives and new readings after 1550
    14. New disciplines of authenticity and authority: Mabillon's diplomatics and the ius archive
    15. Conclusion: the era of chancellery books and beyond.

  • Author

    Randolph C. Head, University of California, Riverside
    Randolph C. Head is Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. He has published extensively on democracy, religious conflict, and knowledge systems in early modern Europe, particularly Switzerland. His publications, which were recognized by the Max Geilinger Prize in 2017, include Early Modern Democracy in the Grisons (Cambridge, 1995), Jenatsch's Axe (2008), and A Concise History of Switzerland (with Clive Church, Cambridge, 2013).

Related Books

also by this author

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×