Search

Copyright of Bulletin des bibliothèques de France is the property of ENSSIB and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the establishment of the Archives Nationales during the French Revolution, focusing on the effects of legislation in regards to feudal documents, especially those documents that established patents of nobility or rights of property. The author considers the parliamentary debates between 1789 and 1794 which discussed the importance of documents in terms of history, power, cultural property, memory, and historical revisionism that sought to embrace revolutionary ideals and break from the past. The legal directives given to committees and archivists overseeing archival documents are discussed.