ARCHIVISTICA

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE. – It is the doctrine that studies the organization, administration, and preservation of archives, while also teaching how to understand their history, essence, and structure. Given the breadth of its scope, archival science must necessarily draw upon the assistance of other disciplines, such as paleography, which is useful for reading ancient scripts; diplomatics for the classification of documents; sigillography for the study of seals; the history of law and institutions for the juridical interpretation of acts; and finally, chemistry to provide remedies suitable for the preservation and restoration of parchments and papers.

Archival science, understood as a set of rules to regulate the movement and life of archives, has a rather remote origin; understood instead as a doctrine for the scientific treatment of related problems, it dates back no more than three centuries. Indeed, it arose in its modern form alongside paleography and diplomatics at the end of the 17th century, when scholarly discussions began to focus on archives.

Having surpassed the boundaries of mere internal organization of the material housed in archives—which, however, continues to form the foundation of the current science—archival science today directs its particular attention to solving all those problems that pertain to the field of external organization of an archive. It therefore suggests the criteria to be followed in the choice of location and site for construction; in the construction of the building, the distribution and arrangement of rooms, and the systems of lighting and heating; as well as providing instructions for the furnishing of storage areas, public reading rooms, and offices. Special care must also be given to the maintenance of both the premises and the furnishings contained within, prescribing a series of measures to ensure their hygiene.

The proper object of archival science, however, remains the internal organization of an archive, for which it examines the content of a formed archive with the aim of ordering it and facilitating its practical use by scholars.

Archival material can be considered from a twofold perspective: formal and scientific. Viewed from the first aspect, it is divided into three categories: parchments, which constitute the most valuable part of an archive due to their importance and antiquity; volumes, whose main types are represented by registers, which contain copies of documents sent by an institution; cartularies, which contain copies of documents received; and protocols, which contain the registration of both sent and received acts; loose papers, consisting of drafts of letters sent and received, various attachments (reports, accounts, plans, etc.), grouped in different ways.

Examined from a scientific point of view, archival material is likewise divided into three categories: documents, acts, and writings. By "documents," in a broad sense, is meant any written item that provides information about a fact; by "acts," those writings that precede and follow a document (e.g., drafts), intended to remain with the sending office and which account for the stages through which the handling of a matter has passed; by "writings," those items that do not partake of the nature of the two previous categories (e.g., correspondence, private letters, accounts, etc.).

This classification of archival material is necessary for the purposes of ordering based on different systems, some of a material application, such as chronological and alphabetical, others based on the internal study of the subject matter, such as the decimal and subject-based systems.

The chronological system, which groups all writings according to the absolute order of date—considered the primary element—presents sometimes serious drawbacks that discourage its use. Suffice it to mention the fact that not all documents are dated, nor are they all detached, and the distortion of documents due to the loss of connection between various documents that reflect a single matter but are not from the same year. The alphabetical system arranges acts according to the initial letter of an index word, which may be a common noun or a personal or geographical name; although presenting a slight advantage over the previous system, this too is not without drawbacks, such as the varying orthography under which the same name may sometimes appear. The decimal system of M. Dewey, based on numerical symbols variously combined, lends itself to a theoretical but not practical arrangement of documents. The subject-based system, which is rather artificial, distributes the material under specific keywords.

Once the archival material has been ordered and arranged according to one of the systems just mentioned, the compilation of an inventory follows, with which one intends to provide a complete list of all parchments, volumes, and loose papers, previously cataloged and numbered, that are found in a given location. Hence derives the practical utility of an inventory, necessary to physically prove the existence of an archival piece, for which it is useful to divide it into as many sections as those into which an archive is divided. The inventory, which can be drawn up in whole or in part during the very ordering of the material, thus serves to provide a general indication of what is contained in an archive, without, however, providing a description of the individual elements preserved—an aim that is instead met by the repertory, which in summary offers the researcher specific knowledge of the content of the documents, while also indicating in which section of the archive documents on a given subject may be found. Nevertheless, in every inventory care will be taken to indicate for each document whether it is an original or a copy, specifying in the latter case its nature, whether it be a simple copy, a figurative copy, an authenticated copy (vidimus), a notarial copy, a dispatch, or a confirmation.

To supplement the information provided by the inventory, registers are used, which provide in summary form, for those documents whose importance warrants it, the essential traits of the records. The regesta, in addition to aiding research, also constitutes a guarantee for the preservation of archival material by limiting its handling.

In general archives, formed by the deposits of multiple special archives, it becomes necessary to compile a single index of the various inventories, registers, and repertories that provides the researcher with current indications along with appropriate references to the oldest ones. An excellent example is offered by the Vatican Apostolic Archive with the publication of the two volumes of *Sussidi per la consultazione dell’Archivio Vaticano*, included in the *Studii e Testi* series of the Vatican Apostolic Library, nos. 45 and 55 (Rome 1926 and Vatican City 1931).

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