Old Archives - Siena, Italy

One of the stops that was scheduled for the group was a visit to Archivio di Stato di Siena (Archives of Siena) to explore some of the documents that included over 60,000 parchments dating from 736 to the present year, the resolutions and statutes of the Republic and the correspondence and records of the judicial and financial administrations of Siena. My first thought was that it might be somewhat interesting, but, from a photography standpoint, that it would not be a place that I would be capturing a lot of photos. That mindset ended when I walked into the first room of the archive. Shelves dominated the room with books upon books on them. One room led to another. The age of each book could easily be determined by looking at the binding. The differing book covers were mesmerizing and you could actually see the advancement of materials over time by just looking at the bindings. I ended up taking more photos than I imagined and left with a great impression of the archives as both a resource and a photographic subject.