Parchments on the move. Removed archives and documentary culture in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Italy

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars witnessed momentous changes in European archives. Archives were moved, confiscated, looted, destroyed, and rearranged on an unprecedented scale. In addition, large portions of Europe’s archives were transported to Paris to form a central imperial repository during the period 1809–1814. What kinds of written artifacts were confiscated and why? To whom did the displaced documents actually belong? What does the removal of archives reveal of Western European documentary culture? The article focuses on collections of loose charters and deeds, particularly in Italy. Traditionally considered among most the valuable objects for their legal, political, and historical value, collections of parchments were reorganised or created ex nihilo in several countries in the eighteenth century. Their displacement raised questions about the definition, significance, potential uses, and proper preservation of documents and the meaning and functions of archives. French confiscations exacerbated such disputes, mixing them with (proto) national arguments about ownership and identity. The archival wars under Napoleon are, thus, a perfect example of the heuristic potential of removal in studying the longue durée history of archives and archival cultures.