Digging the Dust: Renaissance Archivology

  • William H. Sherman
Chapter

Abstract

My essay takes the form of a general meditation on what is at stake in the work in and on “the archives” that has reshaped and revitalized the interdisciplinary study of texts and cultures over the last few decades. This is neither the time nor the place to attempt an overview of, or even an introduction to, the Renaissance period’s own archives: much more work — by a team of scholars — would be needed to survey the political, architectural, and intellectual developments that led to the creation of new documentary collections in Renaissance homes, cities, and states, along with an increasingly sophisticated sense of the disciplines that we now call library science and information management (and I would put this high on my list of the great collaborative projects that remain to be done for the Renaissance period). Rather, I will look at some of the materials and metaphors that frame our work in archives and, in particular, urge us to think more deeply about the peculiar place of dust. As we shall see, this small but significant substance brings into focus a number of questions about our relationship to the past — questions that have become more pressing and more interesting with the advent of digital technology.

Keywords

Rare Book Renaissance Period Sophisticated Sense Modern Edition Peculiar Place 
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Notes

  1. 1.
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  2. 6.
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© William H. Sherman 2009

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  • William H. Sherman

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