Municipal Archives Research Articles

The Lombard <em>Broletto</em> and Communal Architecture in the Alpine Areas, 15th-19th Centuries.

The broletto, the medieval building that housed the communal administration of the Lombard cities, has long been the subject of studies that examine it from ethical, political, stylistic, and formal points of view. In recent years, focus in medieval studies has shifted to areas of the ‘margins of the communal world’, territories that, although relevant to historical change, have been neglected by historiography. In this contribution, I consider the architecture of buildings in fringe areas from the valleys in the Rhaetian and Bergamasque Alps that date to the communal age and that were significantly transformed between the 15th century and the early contemporary period. I begin with general remarks about the context and then use the communal palace of Clusone in Bergamo and the Palazzo Pretorio di Chiavenna (Sondrio) as case studies, drawing on unpublished documents in the municipal archives of the two cities.

Invisible favelas

This article presents the first part of the results of a study on the presence and/ or absence of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas in the city’s cartography. Different data sources were used: research in the municipal archives—including the Rio’s first aerial photographs ever made, cartographic records and infrastructure maps from the 1920s and 1930s; research in building codes; and research on digital cartographic platforms. The aim of the article is to investigate when and how the urban phenomenon of favelas officially appears in the city’s records and to reflect on how this late and inconsistent recognition may have affected the existence of the phenomenon itself, since its lack of official recognition created bureaucratic barriers to public administration actions. The argument of this article is that cartographic production has kept the favela an invisible part of the city and how, especially in recent decades, this invisibility has been a political choice. The article concludes that the choice for invisibility has contributed to these large territories becoming deeply embedded in the city’s urban fabric.

The political crisis of autumn-winter 1993 on the pages of the newspaper "Muromsky Krai"

The article is devoted to the reflection of the political crisis of the end of 1993 in the provincial periodical of Murom, Vladimir region. The author refers to the journalistic articles of the local newspaper "Muromsky Krai" from September 23, when the first information about the events in Moscow was published, to December 23, when the results of the December 12 vote were published in the newspaper. Information about the situation on the ground in conditions of severe crisis and political instability, brought to the peak of tension in the autumn of 1993, is able to tell the mood in society and the position of municipal authorities, as well as reveal the role of the media and journalists, in particular, in localizing and resolving conflicts of interest both within the government and between the government and society at the local level. The research is based on the principles of objectivity and historicism. In addition, historical, systematic and chronological methods allowed us to reveal the question posed to the author about the reflection of the political crisis of the end of 1993 in the Murom newspaper. The source base of the study was the issues of the local socio-political newspaper "Muromsky Krai". To solve the scientific problem, the author applied to the municipal archive of Murom and the local library. The journalists of the local newspaper paid great attention to the political vicissitudes and the participation of citizens in resolving the political confrontation. The author of the study studied this layer of materials in detail and came to the conclusion that urban journalists, with their very peaceful position, contributed to maintaining calm among the Muromites during an extremely difficult period of Russian history. At the same time, citizens, having shown awareness, preferred another way of interacting with the authorities to strikes and mass rallies – participation in the elections on December 12, the results of which showed dissatisfaction with the policy of the central authorities.

Źródła do dziejów polskiej archiwistyki. Interwencja w sprawie skarbów z zamku Czocha zdeponowanych w Archiwum Miejskim w Jeleniej Górze (1948-1949)

In the years 1947-1949, in the warehouses of the Municipal Archives in Jelenia Góra, the local District Court deposited and sealed works of art from the Czocha Castle, confiscated from looters. This paralyzed some of the Archive’s work and also threatened the security of the archives locked together with the museum items. Efforts to recover these warehouses continued for over two years, supported by the State Archives in Wrocław. The documents presented in the article show the joint activities of the state and municipal archives undertaken to preserve the archival heritage of Lower Silesia and the methods of their mutual communication.

Soviet Practices of Financing the Operation of Highways in the Tyumen North: Between Regional Lobbying and Departmental Voluntarism

The article analyzes the Soviet practices of financing the operation of highways in the Tyumen North in the mid-1960s – early 1970s. Based on the materials of state and municipal archives, as well as the memoirs of road users of the Tyumen region, with the help of historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods, an attempt is made to show departmental interests and features of regional lobbying practices during the formation of contributions from enterprises of the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets national districts to the so-called “road fund” of the Tyumen Region for the operation of highways within the framework of the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (April 7 , 1959). The main problems of financing the repair and maintenance of highways, which led to contradictions between the Soviet authorities at the regional and district levels, are identified. Interdepartmental conflicts between Tyumenavtodor’s management and enterprises of the national districts were an active continuation of regional contradictions. The essence of the main contradictions in the period under study was the departmental affiliation of the highways of the Tyumen North. They did not belong to local or regional public roads and could not be repaired at the expense of deductions received by decree from enterprises and organizations in national districts. Among the practices of administration by the road industry, directive planning for the year and the formation of a task for the shared participation of enterprises of the districts played an important role. The author comes to the conclusion that enterprises and organizations of the national districts sought to reduce the amount of monetary contributions for the repair and construction of highways and redistribute funds to the district or city budget at the enterprise’s location. However, the Soviet authorities, represented by Tyumenavtodor’s management, hindered these processes, pursuing the goals of financial support for roads under construction in the south of the region, as well as recruiting road construction equipment and enterprises’ trucks.

The Benedetti Fragment of the Archivio Comunale of Gemona del Friuli: Franco-Italian Cross-Pollination in Late Medieval Europe

Abstract: The aim of the article is to study a fragment of the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’ à César preserved in the municipal archives of Ge-mona del Friuli (Udine, Italy). In addition to the description of the fragment and its contents, this contribution reflects on the spread of Middle French in Italy by contextualizing the fragment of the Histoire within the complex phenomenon of relations between northeastern Italy and France. In particular, the presence of the fragment highlights the richness of Friuli in the context of medieval literature, despite the region’s peripheral place in European cultural circulation.

A Hebrew Fragment in the Municipal Archive in Münster as a Witness to a Little-Known Ritual Practice

AbstractThe Stadtarchiv in Münster, Germany holds a medieval Hebrew fragment with portions of the daily Shema Yisrael prayer. Measuring 510 mm in height, this fragment is but a quarter of a large-sized parchment sheet, which was designed to be hung on a wall. This study introduces the fragment and describes its material features and then suggests its possible function against the backdrop of talmudic discussions on biblical texts that are incorporated in prayer. In light of the halakhic position that biblical verses should not be recited from memory but only from a written text, the original sheet was intended to provide worshippers with an accessible copy of the Shema text, since many did not have personal prayerbooks.

Una historia de amor estético: Adelardo Covarsí y la elaboración y realización de la memoria y presupuestos del decorado que se proyecta en el salón de sesiones y en el despacho presidencial del palacio municipal de Alburquerque (Badajoz)

Although Adelardo Covarsí’s painting have been profusely studied and much appreciated, the ornamental Project we are focusing on for Alburquerque (Badajoz) has not yet worked. On this way, we try to analyze a few masterpieces and publish a new interior decorative Project. To do this, we went to the Municipal Archive of the town of Alburquerque, where this documentation is kept and where some of these paintings are located. After that, we investigated different libraries-newspapers archives and scientific papers to understand the ornamental project as a set.
 This research proposes the valuing of this decoration and its understanding as a dialogue between different pictures topics and the decoration project of Adelardo Covarsí.

„Spis dzieł drukowanych w archiwum znajdujących się” – o księgozbiorze archiwum miejskiego w Przemyślu

„The list of printed works found in the archives” – on the book collection of the municipal archive in Przemyśl In the years 1874–1877 Mieczysław Błażowski took up the job of organizing the Przemyśl municipal files. The result of his work was the development of the Catalogue of the State Archives of the Royal City of Przemyśl. It has the form of a book and is currently kept at the National Archive in Przemyśl in the fonds “Files of the city of Przemyśl”, sign. 2388. Apart from the catalogue of archival material Błażowski developed a list of printed works titled „The list of printed works found in the archives”. The list was later complemented by Błażowski’s successors at the position of the city archivist – Kazimierz Górski and Tadeusz Troskolański. “The list of printed works…” has 95 items and contains printed works which the fonds obtained by way of donations or purchases. Taking the position of the city archivist in 1911, Tadeusz Troskolański began developing a professional archive library, e.g. through purchasing publications on paleography and diplomacy.

Medieval Alpine communal politics under the spotlight. The ERC project DEMALPS

The article presents the ERC research project DEMALPS, which studies late medieval mountain areas as the cradle of radically new political experiences, inspired by original values and practices of self-governance. The focus of the project is on the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Western Alps, a broad territory (including modern French, Italian and Swiss regions) which saw unprecedented political unrest and experimentation with forms and institutions. Based on a rich corpus of sources, mostly scattered across local municipal archives, DEMALPS will offer an extraordinary insight into the Alpine inhabitants’ political ideals and connections, which will be explored through an interdisciplinary approach combining medieval history, digital humanities, diplomatics, and archival science. DEMALPS proposes to be a native digital project specifically designed for collaborative work, thanks to the development of an online application to collect, analyse and share data within the team and subsequently with the scholarly community.

Local Practices vs National Models of Integration? The Management of Ethno-religious Diversity in an Urban Context

This article examines the ways in which ethnic and cultural diversity is concretely managed in the city of Marseille, a metropolitan area located in France, a country that academic literature defines as assimilationist. Based on a series of 26 semi-structured interviews and on the analysis of municipal archives, it reveals that ethnic, cultural and religious organizations are essential actors in local political life in Marseille. On one hand, in order to manage their culturally heterogeneous city, municipal officials rely on alliances with community leaders to maintain legitimacy among the local population. On the other hand, community leaders demand symbolic gestures of cultural recognition from the mayor in exchange for their political support. This paper, inspired by conceptual tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu, builds an innovative theoretical framework for analysis of the ‘social field of multiculturalism.’ In the process, it sheds light on strategies of negotiation and competition among different local actors in the daily management of diversity.

Казан арты татар авылларында милли аяк киемнәре җитештерү тарихыннан (Ямаширмә авылы мисалында)

At the present day, the history of the development of national shoes with leather mosaics has been well studied by researchers. In the given article, the author, using the case study of the Yamashurma village, tries to explain the connection between the Rear-Kazan embroiderers and the entrepreneurs of the Kazan settlements. The stages of formation of artels, which originate from the end of the 19th century, are presented. For the first time, information was introduced into scientific circulation about the participation of women from the Yamashurma village in the Second All-Russian Exhibition of Small Craftsmen, held in 1913 in St. Petersburg. The article prioritises the sources from the funds of the State Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Arsk Municipal Archives.

The lost historical archives of the City of Szczecin

The article is devoted to the historical archives of the city of Szczecin (Stettin), lost at the end of World War II. The authors try to recreate the circumstances of the disappearance of the Szczecin records, their internal structure, as well as indicate the limitations that the loss of these materials poses for contemporary historians. The paper also shows the process of shaping the municipal archives in Szczecin, as well as the reasons and conditions in which the municipal authorities transferred their historical records to the State Archives in Szczecin. The issue is considered against the background of changes taking place in Prussian archival science in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and taking into account the history of other selected municipal archives in Germany. The most important achievement of the presented material is the description of the lost historical archive of Szczecin.

Features of the fight of the underground movement in the Northern Crimea (1941–1943)

The article examines the issues of the anti-fascist struggle in the Ak-Sheikhsky district of the Crimean ASSR during the Great Patriotic War and the assistance of patriots to the intelligence of the 51st Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. The purpose of the article is to analyze the above-mentioned scientific problems on the basis of previously unpublished documents from the funds of the municipal archive of the Administration of the Razdolnensky district, the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea and the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum. The research methods used are source studies, historical and typological, retrospective, statistical and biographical methods.The author focuses on the problem of organizing the underground movement in the territory of the Akh-Sheikh region from the middle of 1942, on the role of A.A. Mikhailov, authorized by the Crimean Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in uniting disparate underground groups into an integral cohesive structure, analyzing the activities of the underground workers of the Ak-Sheikh region district, on the establishment of contacts by patriots of the Ak-Sheikh region with intelligence structures of the 51st Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front (late 1943 – early 1944).The study revealed previously unpublished materials on the activities of the underground movement on the territory of the Akh-Sheikhsky, the Larindorfsky, the Krasno-Perekopsky regions of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The contribution of the undergrounders to the common cause of the anti-fascist struggle, as well as the creation of conditions for the successful liberation of the Peninsula from the German-Romanian occupation in the spring of 1944 was noted.

Development of Traditional Communities of the Khabarovsk Territory During the Population Policy of 1970s-1980s of Russia

This paper examines the state demographic policy in relation to the indigenous minorities of the Khabarovsk Territory in 1970- 1980s in Russia. Its intention is to identify the factors and dynamics of quantitative changes in the national settlements of the region. The paper also aims to unravel the main directions of this policy and the implementation of its programs in various spheres. It examines unpublished sources in a scientific review as a research method. This research is based on previously unknown documents, found in state and municipal archives, is brought into scientific field. The paper identifies the main directions and particularities of the Soviet demographic policy, analyzes the implementation of the main programs in relation to the indigenous minorities of the Khabarovsk Territory, and evaluates the trends in the change of a number of indigenous minority ethnic groups during this period. It concludes that this policy has led to the establishment of a new form of education, construction of a new structure of national sectors functioning, and formation of a state system of medical education. Finally, it argues that the implementation of the Soviet demographic policy has had controversial consequences for the development of the indigenous minorities.

“A River Runs Through It”: Crossing the Meuse in Batenburg (The Netherlands)

The dialects spoken in the Dutch region Land van Maas en Waal, between the two rivers Meuse and Waal, are usually classified as a mixed dialect group exhibiting characteristics of the dialects of both Brabant and Gelderland. The perceptual map of the dialects paints a different picture as it shows a division between the speakers in the southern part of the region, who regard their dialect as more related to Brabant dialects, while speakers in the northern part feel more connected with the dialects spoken to the north of the Waal. The present paper attempts to explain this difference in perception by looking at the contacts the inhabitants of the small town of Batenburg had across the river. Materials used for this study include interviews with elderly people in Batenburg and data from the municipal archives.

The Spanish Enlightenment and Happiness Economics. The case of Seville’s Economic Society of Friends of the Country and its project to trade meat salting with Buenos Aires Province (1778)

The Enlightened Movement in Spain is widely known for its modernizing effort and its economic and social reform projects in Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries. In line with the European Enlightenment, the ideals of classical liberalism and utilitarianism began to spread hand in hand with the enlightened intellectuals as a paradigm towards the well-being of the people. The anthropocentric turn of the Enlightenment brought with it not only the struggle for the rights of man and the consequent evolution of European absolute monarchies towards enlightened despotism, but also the evolution of the very perception of wealth, well-being and happiness of the society. Thanks to the works of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus or Jeremy Bentham, the roots of the Happiness Economics can be traced back to the 18th century through the association they made between the economic development of society and the level of happiness. This paper analyzes the project of the Royal Sevillian Economic Society of Friends of the Country for the salted meat trade with the province of Buenos Aires as a case study of the connection between economic development, well-being and happiness in the Spanish Enlightenment through the study of the transcripts of sessions collected in the Libro de Actas No. 1 (1775-1780) and the copies of letters collected in the Book of Correspondence of the Society, as well such as the loose papers available in the Municipal Archive of Seville.

Agrotropolis: Youth, Street, and Nation in the New Urban Guatemala

Agrotropolis: Youth, Street, and Nation in the New Urban Guatemala

Abandoning Their Beloved Land: The Politics of Bracero Migration in Mexico. By Alberto García

In a 1948 letter to Mexico’s federal agrarian officials, Cleofas Hernández and Alberto Rodríguez expressed their desire to migrate to the United States as braceros. For years, socio-economic precarity in Southern Guanajuato made it difficult for them to provide for their families. Then came the final straw: Presa del Aguacate’s ejidatarios seized their land. Authorities refused to intervene on campesinos’ behalf. And so, the pair decided, they had one choice: to “abandon their dearly beloved land.” This is one of many evocative testimonies that Alberto García skillfully mines—along with a trove of government documents from federal, state, and municipal archives—to unravel the politics of bracero migration in Mexico. For García, bracero migration was much more than a socio-economic phenomenon. Instead, it was shaped by the ideologies and ambitions of Mexican elites, Catholic activists, local powerbrokers, and migrants themselves. As the author convincingly explains, the roots of bracero migration lie in the failures of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional’s (PRI) agrarian reform and the upheaval generated by conservative Catholic opposition to the revolutionary state’s secular agenda. Importantly, García reveals that while politicians of all stripes treated prospective braceros like pawns, the men who wished to join the program were anything but pliable victims. At its core, the decision to migrate was a shrewd rejection of the PRI regime and the endemic corruption that gripped large swathes of Mexican society.

Fonte Grande Park & Gruta da Onça in Vitória - ES: history, preservation and conservation

The paper presents the history of Parque da Fonte Grande and Gruta da Onça in Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, reporting their stories, creations, preservation and conservation actions. The research reaches the present day describing its uses and purposes. The text also discusses how the creation process of the National Parks took place. In the methodology, queries in secondary sources stand out (books, book chapters and course completion works), municipal and federal documents were also examined, in addition to iconographic and cartographic research carried out in the Municipal Archive of Vitória and also field trips with interviews. The results describe the evolution of both, their functions, interventions and participation in the life of the city. The conclusions highlight how much the parks, as geographic elements, attributed challenges, scenic beauty and awakened the population and the state and municipal governments for environmental education actions, appreciation and preservation of the natural landscape heritage.