Questioning frontiers and comparing perspectives: noble archival practices in the Iberian Peninsula (15th-19th centuries)

Abstract

Iberian world produced a considerable number of nobility’s archives, some of them kept by families until today. Connecting the origin of nobility’s archives to family entail, we did a preliminary study to compare some nobility’s archival practices both in Portugal and Spain. This paper’s goal is to understand if there were significant differences in the Iberian Peninsula between production, keeping and inventorying documents. Explaining some key points like: Iberian nobility; configuration of noble archives; archives as a source of power; archive as memory and lineage perpetuation, we can also question “frontiers” between the Iberian reigns concerning nobility archival practices.