The aim of the course is to allow students to acquire specific knowledge in reference to the different role played by archives from the ancient to the contemporary worlds, and the use made of them as the political, legal, social and cultural contexts in which the texts were produced has changed. Specifically, particular attention will be paid to the way in which the forms and structure of the archives have changed over time and how the methods of their conservation and transmission have evolved. Attention will also focus on the change in the character of the bodies charged with their custody and the role attributed to them within the apparatus of power as well as, more generally, the society of which they were an expression.