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The Archives of the Vatican, Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Abstract

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Type
Archives
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1987

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References

Notes

1 This article cannot hope to repeat all the bibliography given in the original one, which is found on pp. 38–52 of the 1985/1 issue.

2 Not excepting the Fathers Kowalsky and Metzler's Inventory of the Historical Archives of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, or ‘Propaganda Fide’. It is the only printed guide on sale for any of the three missionary archives and has a useful explanation of how the collections were built up and affected by calamity (mostly Napoleonic), but it does not go beyond a listing of the codices qua region and time brackets.

3 See my 1985 article, p. 48.

4 Before undertaking any research in the manuscripts of the Archivum Romanum, S.I., one should consult all the documental series published by the Order. These include not only documentation from the Archivum Romanum, but from many other sources as well. And they contain model indices and scholarly apparatus. My goal in using the Archivum Romanum was only to cover the period after 1599, where Father Josef Wicki, S.J., stopped with Vol. XVI of the Documenta Indica.

5 Or so says Father Boyle, on p. 71 of his Survey.

6 Gaining admission to the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, by the way, involves slightly more formality than does admission to the archives of the two Orders just mentioned. The Archivio Segreto publishes a little booklet, sent on request, called ‘Vademecum per gli studiosi’. It admits qualified scholars without regard to nation or religion, but one needs to submit a letter addressed to the ‘S. Padre’ – I guess meaning the Pope – briefly setting forth one's program of study, plus a supporting letter from one ‘Istituto culturale’, i.e. university or sponsoring foundation. As Father Edwards had suggested, the Archivio Segreto is better equipped to make photograms, and there is no specified limit. But the price is high – they cost lit. 500 per frame.