The aim of the Course is to enable students to acquire specific knowledge regarding the different role played by archives between the ancient world and the contemporary age and the use made of them as the political, legal, social, and cultural context of scripture production transforms. Specifically, particular attention will be paid to how the forms and structure of archives have changed over time and how the methods of preserving and transmitting document complexes have evolved. Attention will also focus on changing the physiognomy of those responsible for maintaining archives and the role attributed to them within the apparatus of power and, more generally, in the society of which they were an expression.