Simon Teuscher's article, in: Archival Science, 10(3), 2010, :211-229, is Open Access online (unfortunately in the author's version) at

http://dx.doi.org/10.5167/uzh-42133

"Using late medieval examples from Switzerland, this paper argues that the emergence of formally organized archives around 1500 was part of an important shift in how documents could be deployed. However, this shift was not away from an oral and toward a literate culture, as argued in some earlier studies, but rather away from seeing documents as testimony that reminded a community about past authoritative actors, and toward relating the texts of documents to other texts, that is, to contexts. "

On Teuscher's work see also:

http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/38749205/