Re-examining some decisive properties of social networks derived from archival records Historically focused on the study of the interactions of a limited number of individuals, social network analysis now has to handle huge networks of millions of interactions via Internet. Physicists and computer scientists have studied these networks and observed common structural properties, whose formal interpretations are subjects of debate. A way of reintroducing 'content'? consists in considering digital data as similar to historical archives. This implies exploring the nature and limits of this type of documentary corpus, as well as the methodological precautions required in its exploitation, and highlighting the most important steps in the construction of a 'social network'?.