The State Archive of Milan is an office of the Italian Ministry of Culture overseen by the Directorate-General for Archives.*
Like museums, libraries, archaeological areas and parks and monuments, the State Archive is an “institute and place of culture”, tasked with gathering, cataloguing and preserving original documents of historical interest and guaranteeing their accessibility for study and research purposes.
In accordance with current legislation, the State Archive of Milan has the following role:
- TO PRESERVE its records, made up of pre-Unification archives; documents of historical interest, for permanent preservation, deposited by State judicial and administrative bodies, thirty years after the conclusion of the affairs, or in the case of draft/conscription records, seventy years after the birth year of the cohort to which they refer, or, in the case of notarial acts, one hundred years after the end of the notary’s activities. The institution also preserves the records of suppressed state offices or defunct public entities and, on a temporary basis, the archives and documents of public entities through temporary deposits. Finally, it also stores private archives transferred or permanently donated to the State, or deposited temporarily on a free loan basis. The preservation process consists of study, prevention, maintenance and restoration activities as well as the cataloguing of records.
- TO SUPERVISE state offices that deposit their records through the activities of the Supervisory committees, formed of representatives of the individual offices, the State Archive and the Prefecture. These committees meet periodically to monitor the correct maintenance of current and deposit archives, define document organisation, management and preservation criteria, propose the disposal of records to the Directorate-General for Archives, arrange deposits, and identify confidential records.
- TO PROMOTE its records through awareness-raising and communications activities. These include public consultations, the organisation of archive material exhibitions and events of scientific and cultural interest, the editing of research tools, the publication of studies and research tools, the publication of sources but also the spread of information on the institution and its initiatives via the website. These activities can also be sponsored by private parties.
- To organise EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES under the School of Palaeography, Archive Studies and Diplomatics and via the Education service. These include guided tours, educational workshops, seminars, conferences...
As a rule, the records can be freely accessed for reading, study and research purposes at no charge. However, for reasons of confidentiality, the authorisation of the Ministry of the Interior is legally required to view:
- documents deposited in advance of the time limits established by law;
- documents on State foreign or domestic policy classified for fifty years after their creation;
- documents containing sensitive data or information on criminal procedures for forty years after their creation;
- documents containing information on the state of health of individuals, their sexual relationships or private family relationships, for seventy years after their creation;
- documents from private archives donated or transferred to the State Archive whose contributors specified the condition that those from the last seventy years may not be accessed.
The authorisation request (PDF, 11 KB) must be submitted by the interested party, together with the research project outlining the topic, the aims of the study and the methods of disclosing the information, to the Prefecture of Milan, which will forward it to the Ministry of the Interior.
text by Carmela Santoro, State Archivist
Legal references:
Decree of President of the Republic no. 1409 of 30 September 1963, Regulations on the organisation and employees of State archives (articles in force)
Legislative Decree no. 42 of 22 January 2004 Cultural and landscape heritage code (as amended)
Decree of President of the Republic no. 37 of 8 January 2001, Regulation for the simplification of procedures to establish and reappoint archive Supervisory committees and for the disposal of State office documents
Legislative Decree no. 196 of 30 June 2003, Code on the protection of personal data
Decision of the Italian Data Protection Authority of 14 March 2001, Code of ethics and good conduct code for the processing of personal data for historical purposes
* Law no. 71 of 24 June 2013 made the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities responsible for tourism and changed its name to the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism.
There are 101 Italian State Archives and they are located in provincial capitals. These are joined by 35 State Archive Sections, established in towns that are not provincial capitals. For the complete list see the General Guide to the Italian State Archives.
