La donation de Teodoro Correr à la bibliothèque du musée communal de Venise : fonds archivistique ou collection manuscrite ?

The principle of provenance has been imposed in Europe since the middle of the 19th century as the absolute rule of the profession of archivist. This “archival revolution” has led to a different treatment of the material depending on the host institution, its nature and its operating rules, and much less on the intrinsic character of the documentary material. These practices have contributed to the formation of “grey zones”, such as those formed by archives kept in libraries. The choice to donate documentary material to a library, rather than to an archives, is explained in Italy by the fact that the State archives, as public establishments, were established only after Italian Unity (in 1875). Another reason is the fact that libraries were considered to be stable public repositories. During the 20th century, although the phenomenon of the deposit of documentary material in libraries intensified, and these funds received the name of "archives of persons" (archivi di persona), the reluctance to consider them as archives accentuated the confusion around the nature of these documentary sets deposited in libraries . Taking as a case study a fund preserved in the library of the Correr Museum in Venice, the Municipal Museum which bears the name of the owner: Teodoro Correr, a Venetian nobleman (1750-1830), the article shows the devastating outcome of the confusion in treating archival records by librarians.