14") issued by the French Ministry of the Interior on 24 April 1841 and authored by Natalis de Wailly, head of the Administrative Section of the Archives nationales;[3][4] although Luciana Duranti has found evidence of the principle in Naples three decades earlier.
At this stage it did not necessarily imply respect de l’ordre intérieur or original order, as the French were in the habit of organizing within fonds by year, subject matter, relevancy, or some other system.
"[9] While respect des fonds is generally considered a core concept of the archival enterprise, some critics have noted both the historical contingency of its creation and also the impracticality of its execution.
[10][11] Critics claim that respect des fonds arose from the need to find a simplistic method for novice archivists to manage a growing volume of archival materials.
[14] Archival procedures have been subject to critique from post-structural and post-colonial thinkers, who observe the ways in which power dictates methods of arranging and describing materials.