A History of Archival Practice

by Paul Delsalle, Margaret Procter

Overview

This revised translation of the classic 1998 Une histoire de l’archivistique provides a wide-ranging international survey of developments in archival practices and management, from the ancient world to the present day.

The volume has been substantially updated to incorporate recent scholarship and provide additional examples from the English-speaking world. These new additions complement the original text and offer a broad and up-to-date survey, with examples spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and North and South America. The bibliography has also been updated with new material and supplementary English language sources, making it an accessible and up-to-date resource for those working and researching in the field of archives and archival history.

This book is an essential reference volume for both archivists and historians, as well as anyone interested in the history of archives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367882266
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/18/2019
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Paul Delsalle is Professor of Modern History at the Université de Franche-Comté, France, specialising in the editing of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century documents. Between 1990 and 1995 he was Lecturer in Archival Studies at the University of Haute-Alsace in Mulhouse, France.

Margaret Procter is Senior Lecturer in Record and Archive Studies at the University of Liverpool, UK, and previously worked as a professional archivist. She has worked with the International Council on Archives for over 25 years,most recently as Editor of its multilingual journal Comma.

Table of Contents

List of figures vii

Introduction to the French edition (1998) ix

Introduction to the English edition xv

1 The ancient world 1

2 The classical world: from Greek city states to the Roman empire 17

3 Archives and archival practices in Asia and Africa, antiquity to the eighteenth century 33

4 Archives and archival practices in the Americas, to the eighteenth century 53

5 In the chanceries and muniment rooms of medieval Europe from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries 65

6 Buildings and equipment in Western Europe, late antiquity to the seventeenth century 87

7 The defining era: Simancas, the Habsburgs and the sixteenth century 106

8 State bureaucracy and archival centralisation in early modern Europe 117

9 Being an archivist in early modern Europe 131

10 Methods and techniques for Classification and arrangement in the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries 151

11 Legislation, literature and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 164

12 Buildings and readers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 180

13 Archives destroyed, protected and reconstituted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 197

14 The rise of a profession in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 205

15 From mutual assistance to international networks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 215

16 Conclusion: the value of the historical perspective 230

Afterword to the English edition 233

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

"A readable and well-organized synthesis…. [this book] ought to be essential reading for anyone seeking the nearest approximation of a “global archival history” currently available in English"

- Eric C. Stoykovich, University of Maryland, US

"It reflects much of the latest scholarship on all periods of archival history from ancient Mesopotamia to the twentieth century; it covers an impressive range of topics in a very small space; and, as the first and only monograph of its kind in English, it fills a long-standing void in professional literature. If it succeeds in provoking new interest in its subject matter, or encouraging its readers to undertake further research, it will have served its purpose admirably."

- Geoffrey Yeo, University College, London, UK

"For anyone interested in the historical development of archival practice or in the variety of perspectives available through the lens of international or global comparisons, A History of Archival Practice is a welcome addition to the growing literature on archival history."

- Rand Jimerson, Western Washington University, US

"A History of Archival Practice, Margaret Procter, senior lecturer in record and archive studies at the University of Liverpool, UK, provides a beautifully rendered revision and translation of Delsalle’s chronicle of power and control for an anglophone audience."

-Christopher M. Laico, Columbia University, US

"...Margaret Procter’s translation of this text by Professor Paul Delsalle is very much to be welcomed....I think the book has great potential value and undoubtedly fills a big gap in the extant literature."

-Elizabeth Shepherd, University College London, UK

" The book is therefore ideally suited, and intended, as an overview work on the development of the archival system. If a topic is of interest to you, you can delve further into the references and the extensive literature specification that is added to each chapter. These two elements form the great added value of this book, which everyone who deals with archives should have read."

- Wouter van Dijk, Hereditas Nexus

From the Publisher