0. Introduction

The introduction delineates the main topic of the book. Starting with archiving, it examines the ways in which text has been handled in north-western cultures since Antiquity. Archiving, editing and publishing are presented as core cultural practices in which text plays a key role and which the following chapters aim to explore. The two main perspectives are a theoretical approach reflecting on their historical institutionalization and an analysis of the impact of the shifts brought on to them at the end of the 20th century with the introduction of digital media and the consequences of the climate crisis.