Artifex or philosophus additus artifici? The role of the archivist reorganizing personal archives

Abstract

How far the archivist could actively go − or should he go − processing on personal archives? This kind of archive is very often, during his creation, lacking a structure; in other cases it has been reorganized, selected and redefined by the same producer, his descendants and collaborators, and even by the previous “experts”. In these Fonds, the original small organization is intertwined with the desire to project an identity value in the archive, and intercepted by family members or other people: when is it appropriate to restore the original situation? How important is the traceability of the archivist’s work? The presentation of some real situations illustrates the problems that can arise in various cases.