ARCHIVISTA**, a keeper of an archive.

Under the emperors, the archivist was an officer of great dignity, held equal to the proconsuls, vested with the quality of a count, styled clarissimus, and exempted from all public offices and taxes. Among the ancient Greeks and Persians, the trust was committed to none but men of the first rank; among the Franks, the clergy being the only men of letters, kept the office among themselves.—Since the erection of the electoral college, the Archbishop of Mentz has had the direction of the archives of the empire.