In recent years, the term “archive” in academic discussions has drifted away from its basic meaning (a place of acquiring, segregating, selecting, and cataloguing collections in a given socio-political and cultural space) to adopt the function of a conceptually attractive metaphor—a figure of political discourse, an institution of power, or memory. The changes (archive turn) are followed by some other ones caused by invasion of virtual world into the archive space (digitalisation) between the researcher and the source. Such transformations not only impose redefining the notions such as text transmission which are fundamental for the critical and historical research, but also call for the role of their materiality (material versus virtual transmission). In addition to that, it is argued whether digital repositories can replace the traditionally understood archives, which impact and effect they may have on the researcher when it comes to the replacement of the classical contact with the source with the digital medium (acceleration of the work, fragmentarisation), how they change the way of thinking about the research subject, how they influence the extensive analysis of the research material and, in consequence, broader phenomena and cultural process, including literary ones. The extent to which a researcher relies on printed transmissions affects the perception of literary phenomena and formation of canons is a separate issue in the paper.