Nobility and archives. Towards a social history of archives

档案和归档最近开始引起人文学科的新关注。这部分是由于最近的社会和技术发展，但部分也反映了人文学科的方法论变化。信息、信息管理和知识生产的问题已经在各种学科中成为富有成果的主题。通常情况下，当前的辩论仍然集中在当代问题上，直到最近，档案的历史和归档作为一种社会实践才得到历史学家的更有力的关注。本项目试图为“档案史”这一新兴领域提供新的视角。它通过试图重新聚焦我们的研究视角来做到这一点。目前，当历史学家调查档案和存档的历史时，他们通常研究大的国家和教会机构（皇家和宫廷档案等），强调档案发展和国家官僚机构的联系。然而，这个项目依赖于一个基本的假设，即欧洲转向档案的全部力量和重要性，始于中世纪的某个时候，只有当我们考虑到许多非国家和非集中的档案机构时，才能充分评估。从积极的方面来说，我们需要尽可能广泛地勾勒档案史的视角，包括新的档案驱动力的所有社会表现。该项目将通过关注被忽视的档案建设者社会群体，欧洲贵族来实现这一目标。本文提出了三种研究被忽视的“档案与贵族”史的方法：从档案史的角度研究贵族的档案实践;在封建冲突中贵族利用档案的具体形式;贵族、档案与家谱的关系。通过结合这三种方法，该项目将呈现欧洲贵族作为欧洲文化转向档案的主要参与者。

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.