Turning Memories into Power: Swiss Archives as a Tool of Republican Policymaking in the Second Half of the Early Modern Period

Abstract

Although research has greatly contributed to our understanding about the creation and managing of early modern archives, their role as the state memory institutions is still rarely discussed. Even in the relatively well-researched case of the early modern Swiss Confederation (also known as the Old Swiss Confederacy), the role remains little studied in some states, particularly rural microstates. Drawing on sources from two city-states (Zurich and Lucerne) as well as two rural microstates (Obwalden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden), the article aims to analyze the reciprocal relationship between the archives and political decision-making bodies, namely the respective councils in the age of republicanism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. An archive was widely considered “the soul of the state” and a cornerstone of political decision-making. As such, it was not only seen as a source of guiding and legitimization, but also as a correcting force. Recollections of the past were a typical feature of republicanism with its Roman and Greek models. It was believed that the correction of the present was to be found in the past; therefore, the councils assigned great importance to the keeping of minutes and other records, which, once they entered the archive, ensured a long-lasting political influence. However, archival materials were not supposed to mirror reality but rather an ideal de facto aristocratic state. If the reality did not fit this picture, the records were not created, or alternatively, destroyed or manipulated in order to reinforce the predominant social structure to mirror the ideal.