Name: Making Archives in Early Modern Europe By Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)
SKU: 9781108462525
Price: 47.76 USD
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Making Archives in Early Modern Europe Summary

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe: Proof, Information, and Political Record-Keeping, 1400-1700 by Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

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.

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe Reviews

'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

About 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).

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 Wurzburg; 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.

Additional information

Sku

CIN1108462529VG

ISBN 13

9781108462525

ISBN 10

1108462529

Title

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe: Proof, Information, and Political Record-Keeping, 1400-1700 by Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

Author

Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

Condition

Used - Very Good

Binding type

Paperback

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Year published

2020-08-20

Number of pages

366

Prizes

N/A

Cover note

Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.

Note

This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe by Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

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Making Archives in Early Modern Europe Summary

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe: Proof, Information, and Political Record-Keeping, 1400-1700 by Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

Making Archives in Early Modern Europe Reviews

About Randolph C. Head (University of California, Riverside)

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