The purpose of this study is to introduce the ten documents, written in the Italian language, registered by Riksarkivet, Stockholm. The oldest document being written in 1346 and the last one in 1520, they all belong to the European medieval period. The study provides the texts (sometimes contracted, sometimes partly translated from Latin), the cultural backgrounds to the texts and possible reasons why they are written in Italian. An additional question concerning the existence of people in Medieval Sweden who were able to read and understand Italian texts is discussed. The importance of the extension of the Italian language in the Mediterranean area as well as in the Levant is referred to as an explanation of the use of Italian in the documents. Important motives of the fact that some of the documents are being found in the Swedish archive are the activities of the Swedish Expeditions to the Vatican library as well as the life of Bridget of Sweden, who played an outstanding role in the political, cultural and political life in Europe in the fourteenth century. A short background to the studies at the Studio of Siena of a number of Swedish students is given and also to the foundation of the University of Uppsala. The study is concluded by presenting an evaluation of the ten documents.

Introduction. The aim of this thesis is to examine how Swedish private archival institutions perceive the possibility of being included in the Archival Law. At present the Archival Law of 1990 only applies to official documents from the public sector. Recently however a proposal to change the legislation so that it in part also applies to private archives has been made in the newly published Archival Inquiry commissioned by the government. A more far-reaching proposal to include the private archives in the law has also been made by the Swedish National Archives. Method. We conducted a qualitative research study using semi-structured interviews with 10 informants from 8 different private archival institutions in Sweden. Analysis. By presenting what has been said regarding legislation for private archives in previous archival inquiries, government propositions and other official reports we frame the idea of legislation for private archives by putting it in its culturalpolitical context. An important concept that permeates this thesis is the concept of cultural heritage and how it relates to private archives. The transcriptions from the interviews were analysed by the use of force-field analysis which has its roots in Karl Lewin’s field theory. Results. By collecting the informants thoughts concerning a new legislation for private archives and analysing them as forces working for (driving forces) and against (restraining forces) change we show the complexities surrounding this issue. Conclusion. In many cases uncertainty of what the consequences of the new legislation will be for the private archival institutions prevents them from supporting the change. Our informants also feel that the Swedish National Archives has a top-down perspective which prevents them from listening to and learn from the private sectors experiences. Collaboration between the public and the private sector seems to be the way forward. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science

Abstract The purpose of this study is to introduce the ten documents, written in the Italian language, registered by Riksarkivet, Stockholm. The oldest document being written in 1346 and the last one in 1520, they all belong to the European medieval period. The study provides the texts (sometimes contracted, sometimes partly translated from Latin), the cultural backgrounds to the texts and possible reasons why they are written in Italian. An additional question concerning the existence of people in Medieval Sweden who were able to read and understand Italian texts is discussed. The importance of the extension of the Italian language in the Mediterranean area as well as in the Levant is referred to as an explanation of the use of Italian in the documents. Important motives of the fact that some of the documents are being found in the Swedish archive are the activities of the Swedish Expeditions to the Vatican library as well as the life of Bridget of Sweden, who played an outstanding role in the political, cultural and political life in Europe in the fourteenth century. A short background to the studies at the Studio of Siena of a number of Swedish students is given and also to the foundation of the University of Uppsala. The study is concluded by presenting an evaluation of the ten documents.