The historical archive of Modena contains the most extensive set of documents held by any Municipality in the region.
It entails an almost full record of its political and administrative activities, covering the whole of its history: from  "Free Commune", to Community and later Capital of the Estense State (1598), acquiring considerable importance and finally a municipality of the Italian State. In fact, this is one of the very few municipal historical archives to be still in possession of its earliest documents, which, contrary to what happened elsewhere, were not handed over to the jurisdiction of the State Archive.

The earliest mention of this archive which has been found is in a Chronicle  by A. Tassoni "the old", which is dated 1306, the year when the town's most ancient documents were destroyed during a popular revolt.

In 1622, the already extensive archive was transferred to the Town Hall where it remained until the end of the 19th century only to be moved again into the "Palazzo dei Musei", along with all the documents "throwing lustre on the town, be it in the field of science, art or literature".