Du papyrus au parchemin. Les origines médiévales de la mémoire archivistique en Europe occidentale

The article aims at reconstructing the transition from papyrus to parchment in the documentary practices of Western Europe, in order to better understand the documentary gaps of the early Middle Ages and consequently the perspective distortions caused by the configuration of the sources. The study firstly tries to identify the production area of papyrus used in Europe, and secondly proposes a mapping of the documentary uses of papyrus and parchment from the sixth to the eleventh century. The interaction between the two types of data, as well as a qualitative and quantitative analysis, allow to propose some interpretations of the phenomenon paying particular attention to the economic exchanges throughout the Mediterranean and the relations between Western Kingdoms, Islam, and Byzantium during the early Middle Ages. Given the fragility of papyrus with respect to parchment, the phenomenon of transition from one material to another, which was substantially accomplished in the eighth and ninth century, resulted in an increased stability of the archives. For the same reason the appearance of a parchment archive within a specific area should not be considered a priori as clue of economic and cultural growth, but on the contrary it is often a result of economic restriction.