This theme focuses on the study of documentary practices in the variety of forms they have taken in different cultural areas, civilisations and periods, following a plurality of approaches. Projects related to the theme will transcend the disciplinary divisions that often affect investigations carried out in this field, favouring an analysis of documents that takes into account their contents, functions and materiality. Particular attention will be paid to projects that question ideas considered to be self-evident (such as the traditional distinction between books (or literary texts) and documents, or the too often ‘passive’ use of archival documents as bearers of an indisputable historical truth), and dealing with the following questions:
– Materiality: the supports, scripts and layouts of documents (with approaches that allow also for material sciences and new technologies);
– From creators to users: the production, circulation and preservation of documents, taking into account the many actors involved in their history, forms and contents, as well as the many settings in which they appear: the private sphere, the offices of notaries and scriveners, administrative offices, public space, archives, etc.
– Text and function: the synergy between the contents and the forms of documents; their interaction with the practices that are associated with their use; the relationship between documents and the literary culture of their time.