Nobility and archives. Towards a social history of archives

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Archives and Archiving have recently started to attract new attention in the humanities. This is, partly, due to recent social and technological developments, but partly also reflects methodological changes within the humanities. Questions of information, information management, and knowledge production have, in a wide variety of disciplines, emerges as fruitful topics. Usually, current debates remain focussed on contemporary issues, and only very recently has the history of archives and of archiving as a social practice gained the historians' attention more forcefully. This project attempts to contribute new perspectives to this emerging field of "history of archives". It does so by attempting to refocus our research perspectives.Currently, when historians investigate the history of archives and archiving, they usually study the big state- and church institutions (royal and palace archives etc.), highlighting the connection of archive-development and state bureaucracies. This project, however, relies on the basic hypthesis that the full force and importance of Europe's turn towards archiving, which started sometime in the Middle Ages, can only be adequately assessed if we take into account the many non-state and non-centralized archival institutions. Put positively, we need to sketch as broadly a perspective of archival history as possible, including all social manifestations of the new drive to archiving.This the project will do by focussing on a neglected social group of archive builders, the European nobility. Three approaches to study the neglected history of "archives and nobility" are suggested: the study of noble practices of archiving in relation to the general history of archives, the specifically noble forms of using archives in feudal conflicts, the relationship between nobilities, archives, and genealogy. By combining these three approaches, this project will present the European nobility as a major playor in Europe's cultural turn towards archives.