Municipal Archives
Research
The research aims to understand municipal management models for the registration of documents and the maintenance of archives in the course of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. In particular, it intends to study how municipalities managed documentary production for administrative action in pre-unification Italy, while being compliant with different regulations; how the local administration dealt with archival management and the preservation of their own memory in the years from the Unification to the end of the 19th century; lastly, how Italian municipalities and the professional communities of secretaries and clerks working in the archives of local institutions received the reforms concerning the logging, classification, creation and the keeping of acts and archives introduced by the circular of the Ministry of the Interior No. 17100-2 of the 1st March 1897, signed by Carlo Astengo.
The investigation also means to provide an annotated bibliography on contemporary handbooks, and to define the context for the development of a new, more modern way of working in an office and perceiving the archive. The main sources will be the books and handbooks available to municipal personnel, in addition to laws, regulations and circulars on this matter.
The research, which commenced some time ago, has already led to the publication of some articles and two monographs: Norme sabaude per gli archivi dei comuni (Turin, 2012); L'archivio comunale dall'Unità al 1897. I manuali per i segretari comunali, i modelli di classificazione e la Circolare 17100-1 del 1885 (Roma, 2016).
The current investigation will focus on the period from 1897 to 1915.