What’s a “silva rerum”?
Silva rerum was an unusual kind of family archive kept in parts of Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. Unlike a typical history written by a single author, a silva rerum was the work of the characters who appear in the narrative. Any member of the family could contribute to it and only the family could see it. Part journal, part scrapbook, part trunk-in-the-attic, the silva rerum recorded the activities, interests, and aspirations of many generations of the family in diaries, portraits, essays, printed ephemera, financial accounts, jokes, memoirs, recipes, and more. The result was a precious, multi-generational, self-authored record of the family’s history.
Silva rerum: ‘A thicket of stories’
Silva is Latin for ‘forest,’ although not in the sense of a dark wood or dangerous wilderness. (Latin had other words for that.) Silva meant a place of exuberant, organic growth, of useful and diverse vegetation. The same word referred to orchards, standing crops, and even literary collections. Rerum meant ‘regarding the stories or characters we are talking about.’ So silva rerum can be translated as ‘a thicket of stories.’
Making our own silva rerum
Traditionally, a silva rerum was simply an album or box kept under lock and key at the family seat, where it was easy to consult and add to by those who had the right to do so and to preserve through the generations.
In our day, families tend to scatter. Ancestral homes rarely remain under the same ownership for more than a couple of generations. Where would we locate our archives? How could we assure that our story is accessible and known by successive generations?
Fortunately, the Internet now makes it possible to solve some of these problems. The key to an effective silva rerum isn’t primarily technical, however. To be a silva rerum, the record must be written by those who appear in its pages. It can’t be simply the work of one person. If you’re part of the family, you have the right to say your piece. And your contribution enriches the story: it’s one piece of the puzzle, one tile in the mosaic, one thread in the tartan. So if you’re connected to Sally Victor and William O. Robison by birth, adoption, or marriage, tell us your story, or your memories of those who appear in this record.