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This article examines the repercussions of the explosion of paper documents generated by new developments in diplomatic practice in Italian city-states between 1450 and 1500. With the proliferation of resident ambassadors whose daily duties centered around writing and receiving letters and other documents, a flood of written material was produced. The management and archiving of all this material triggered the formation of new institutions, of new methods of working, and of new personnel. Though the results of the efforts at archiving were often fitful and incomplete, the governments of the Italian peninsula henceforth sought to collect, control and preserve diplomatic documents so that they could be referenced in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a concept that is part of the nature of archives, and represents a necessary process for the constitution of any fonds. In the Italian archival field, this concept is called sedimentazione, which literally translates as sedimentation. In the international context, the use of this term is uncommon, as sedimentation is not originally an archival term. However, the term is widely used in Italian archival literature and language. This article provides clarifications on the meaning of archival sedimentation and its use in the Italian context. The connotations of spontaneity and/or intentionality of the sedimentation process are analyzed, and a definition of archival sedimentation is proposed. Archives' attributes, such as natural, spontaneous and organic, are put in relation to the sedimentation process, and considerations about their ambiguous meaning are made. Finally, reflections are presented on the present-day connotations that archival sedimentation holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many centuries, unwed mothers in southern Italy were forced to surrender their infants because of a number of social, religious, economic, and political pressures. This study focuses on the policies and practices that were in place in southern Italy regarding illegitimate infants in the late nineteenth century. A detailed analysis of the policies and practices present in the town of Forio d'Ischia during the 20-year period 1880-1899 is also presented. During these two decades, there were 37 illegitimate live births representing 0.70 % of the 5249 live births recorded in this town. Although small in number, these illegitimate births, referred to as spuri in Italian, from the Latin spurius, meaning bastard, were managed by standard predetermined procedures. These included anonymity for the parents, the transfer of such infants to an official town receiver of foundlings, and their transport to Naples' orphanage, the Real Casa Santa dell'Annunziata. This orphanage maintained fairly detailed records about the children who were delivered to it. After a few days at the orphanage, infants were often entrusted to the care of external wet nurses, preferably outside of Naples. This was done in the belief that infant survival was better assured in more rural environments. The case of an illegitimate infant, Antonino Spinalbese, is presented in detail. Born on 14 February 1882 in the town of Forio d'Ischia, he was brought to the orphanage 4 days later. Following a two-day stay at the orphanage, he was entrusted to an external wet nurse, Michele Mondella, and her husband, Ciro Fiscale di Felice, a mariner in the town of Torre del Greco. The available evidence indicates that Antonino Spinalbese became a mariner like his stepfather. As a crew member of the passenger ship, Vulcano, he made three trips from Naples to New York City in 1922 and 1923. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Venice was renowned for gathering and preserving from very early on a huge and growing archive. This article analyses the ways in which records were created, stored, and ordered for both immediate and future use. The political system of Venice, at once aristocratic and republican, had an important impact on the production and preservation of large quantities of documents in unbound filze and bound registri. In turn, the volume of this paperwork required the development of strict criteria for the organization of the material. In particular, this article analyses how records were divided at the moment of production, thus enabling a pragmatic combination of chronological and thematic ordering criteria. The latter were reinforced by finding tools arranged by subject matter, in particular indexes inside each volume and more general indexes across several volumes, both known as rubriche. The article suggests that indexing must be seen as a historical process dependent on Venice's political structures and tied to specific moments in the wider history of the Republic, respectively in the fifteenth, early sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries. Finally, the article points to some unexpected interactions between political secrecy and indexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]