"To speak againg with a full distinct voice" Diplomatics, Archives, and Photographs

pp: 7 DOI: 10.7374/71037

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Keywords

This essay intends to introduce the readers of Â«Ricerche di Storia dellâ€
™
arteÂ» to the application of diplomatics to photographic archives. It consists of a retrospective foreword
an abridged version of much longer essay which was written in response to Luciana Durantiâ€
™
s challenge to find Â«new uses for an old scienceÂ»
and a bibliographical afterword. The central section surveys key concepts of diplomatics in the context of photographic form and function. Rather than dismissing this seventeenth-century discipline as arcane
outmoded
and of limited relevance to modern archives
it seeks to identify those analytical tools in the diplomatic toolkit
which are the most useful for teasing out the meanings embedded in photographic archives. Key diplomatic concepts are explored only in the context of analogue photographs and they remain to be fully investigated for the realm of digital images. The essay cautions that there are serious consequences of embracing a positivist tool in a postmodern world
and that it would be dangerous to accept and apply diplomatics uncritically to photographic archives. Nevertheless
diplomatic concerns can help to shift attention away from the content and focus on functional origins
authorial intentions
and presentational form. The essay concludes that photographs as documents must be situated
analyzed
and understood within both the evolution of communication and the changing roles and responsibilities of the archives