Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/332

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VATICAN


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VATICAN


ficato di Paolo V, manoscritto inedito di Michele Lonigo" (Rome, 1887), Gasparolo gives an accurate description of the collections deposited in the archives at its foundation. Since that time the following im- portant collections have been added: the Archive of the Secretary of State in 1060; Archive of Avignon, of which the last portion was added in 1783; Archive of Sant' Angelo, 1798; Archive of the Congregazione del Buon Governo, 1870; Archive of the Dataria, 1892; Borghese Archive, 1893; Archive of Memorials, 1905; Archive "dell' Uditore Santissimo", 1906; Consis- torial Archive, 1907; and the Archive of Briefs, 1909 (cf. Marini, "Memorie istoriche degU Archivi della Santa Sede", 1825). (Concerning the opening of the secret archives see Institutes, Roman Historical.)

By Motu Proprio of 1 May, 1894 (Fin dal princi- pio), Leo XIII founded in the Vatican Archives an institute for palaeography and diplomatics, his Decree being published on 15 May in a letter to Cardinal Her- genrother, the learned archivist of the Church ("Leo- nis papEe XIII allocutiones, epistote, etc.", Bruges, 1887, 76). In the "Studiedocumenti distoriaedi di- ritto", VI (1885), 106-08, the text of the "Ordina- menti per la Scuola di paleografia presso I'archivio Pontificio Vaticano" may be found. The first pro- fessor was Isidoro Carini, whose successor is (1912) Angelo Melampo. Lectures are dehvered thrice weekly from November to June, and students who successfully compete in the written and oral examina- tions receive a diploma in archival research and diplo- matics (cf. Carini, "Prolusione al corso di paleografia e critica storica, inaugurate nella pontificia scuola Vaticana il 16 Marzo, 1885", Rome, 1885; "Argo- menti di Paleografia e Critica Storica trattati nella Pontificia Scuola Vaticana ne' tre corsi del 1885, 1886, 1887", Rome, 1888). For the extensive works of or- ganization, the activity of the leading archivists in the preparation of the Indices, the nature and contents of the many hundreds of Indices, the reader is referred to Brom, op. cit.

(5) Apart from the secret archives, there are in the Vatican Palace other archives, which may be divided into ecclesiastical, juridical, ecclesiastico-political, and purely administrative archives, according to the bodies to which they belong. Most important his- torically is that of the Apostohc penitentiary; the older collections, of which until recently scholars knew nothing, are kept in the Vatican. The large archive of the Sacra Rota Romana, which is of fundamental importance for juridical questions and the history of jurisprudence, is accommodated in a small annex in the Vatican Gardens, adjacent to the entrance to the museum. All the collections of the archive of the Secretariate of State antedating 1860 are included in the secret archives; later papers are preserved in a special archive on the third story of the palace, where is also the archive of the Congi-egation for Extraor- dinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. This archive admits no investigator, and questions on particular points ad- dressed to it by scholars have failed to receive perti- nent answers. As may be deduced from the ahead}' published earlier Acts of the archive of the Papal Ceremoniare, the volumes of this archive contain very interesting information. The extremely valuable ar- chive of the CajipcUa Sistina, the papal choir, is de- posited in the Vatican Library, though only in the character of a loan. Sj)ecial archives are possessed by the administrations of the m.ajortlomo, the maestro di camera, the master of the sacred palace, the admin- istrations of the Pctcr.spcnce, the Elemosineria, the Computesteria, the Floreria, the maestro di casa, the three corps of guards, and the gendarmes. Other archives are too \inimportant for ment ion here. There is at present some thought of grudually uniting with the secret archives the most, important of the above collections and other ecclesiastical archives existing in Rome outside the Vatican.


EuBEL, The Secret Vatican Archives in American Eccles. Review (January, 1896) ; Haskins, The Vatican Archives in American Historical Review (October, 1S96) ; Idem in Catholic University BuHrtin .(April, 1897); Si 11.1 %, Ti ■ s.rretofthe V'ahcan (London, 1907); Bertz, Italitm ' :I-SS in Archiv der Gesetl-

scha/t far aUere deutxl'. < . /f, V (1824); cf. Lammer,

Monumenta Vaticana ' ' '/ I'smsticam sac. XVI ilius- trantia (1861); Dddik, llrr H„manum. II (Vienna. 1855); Ga- CH.^RO, Les Archives du Vatican (Brussels, 1S74) ; Munch, .Au/- schliisse iibcr das pdpstliche Archiv, German tr. LowENFELD (Berlin, 1880); Gottlob, Das vatikanische Archiv in HistoT' isches Jahrbuch ihr Gum .—Gcstitschaft (1885); LowENFELD, Zur Gesch, des papslhrh' N Arrfm.^ im Mittelalter in Zeitschr. fUr Kirch- engesch. (1S7S); li»i\i. d'-rh. des p&pstlichen Archivs bis zum Jahre 1S17, il>iil, ilssiii 1iii;m. Zur neuesten Gesch. des pdpstl. Archivs in /// ' V ' ' ir/i ron Raumer (1887); Ehrle,

Historia Bt/'/" '^ "rum Pontificum BonifationfE tum

Avenionensi^. 1 i:i [v mi Langlois and Stein, Les archives

de Vhistoire dv f m,- - I 'in-, ls93) ; Hinojosa, Los dispachos de la diplomacia poitti/icia t:n K.-^paila (Madrid, 1896); Cadchie, De la creation d'une ecole beige a Rome (Tournai, 1896); Bacha, Les collections histor. du Vatican in Covipte-reridu de la Commission ToyaU d'histoire, XVI (Brussels, 1889) ; Ehses, Das vatikanische Geheimarchiv in Die kathol. Kirche u. ihre Diener in Wort und Bild, I (Berlin. 1899) ; Arnold, Repertorium Germanicum (Berlin, 1897) : Wirz. Bullen u. Breven aus italienischen Archiven (Ba.sle, 1902); Berliebe, Aux archives du Vatican (Bruges, 1903): Brom. Geschiedvorsching in de pauselijke archieven in De Katho- liek, CXXIII (1903); Horvat, Vatikanskom archivu m U Zagebru (1906) ; Schmouelo, Rossija i Italia (St. Petersburg, 1908); Otto, Das avignoneser Inventar des pdpstl. Archivs vom Jahre 1366 in Quellen u. Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven, XII (Rome, 1909); Glasschhoder in Bcchberger. Kirchl. Handlexikon, s. v. Archiv, Vatikanisches; Gu^bard, Peitite intro- duction aux inventaircs des archives duVatikan (Rome and Palis, 1901) ; Palmiehi in Prolegomena to the Regestum dementis Papit V, I (Rome, 1885), 13-68. reprinted in Journal des Savants (July-August, 1892) ; Manteyer, Les manuscrits de la Reine Christine aux archives du Vatican in Melanges d'archiologie et d'histoire, XVII (1897); Fabbe, Notes sur les archives du Chdteau Saint-Ange, ibid., XIII (1893); BArMGAHTEN, Die Verhaltnisse am vatikanischen geheimen Archiv in Supplement to Allgemeine Zeilung (Munich, 1891), 94, 108, 120. 301.

B. The Vatican Library is the first among the great Ubraries of the world in the importance of its mate- rials, but in the number of its manuscripts a few libraries surpass it, and in the number of printed books it is surpassed by many. This condition but accords with its historical development : the Vatican was founded as a manuscript library, has always been regarded as such, and is to-day administered as such by those in charge. The printed books which have been acquired, either through inheritance, or gift, or by purchase, are intended solely to facihtate and promote the study of the manuscripts. This fact must be borne m mind to understand the attitude of the administration of the Ubrary. (Consult Barbier de Montault, "La Bibliotheque Vaticane et ses annexes", Rome, 1867. A number of essays on the library are contained in: " Al SommoPontefice Leone XIII. Omaggio giubilare della BibUoteca Vaticana", Rome, 1889; "NelGiubileo Episcopate di Leone XIII. Omaggio della Biblioteca Vaticana", Rome, 1893. The former contains the pertinent hterature.)

(1) The Manuscripts. — The whole fund of manu- scripts may be divided into closed (historical) and open collections. The former are collections which came to the Ubrary complete, and are administered aa one entity. As no additional manu.-!cripts from the same sources can henceforth be obtained, these col- lections form a unit with a numeriis clatisus. The open collections are those to which are added new acquisitions made by the Ubrary (either sep.arately or a few together), which do not form a complete coUec- tion in themselves. Separated according to the languages of the manuscripts, there aie sixteen open, and thirty-six closed, di\isions; the open all bear the name of "Codices Vaticani", while the closed are known according to their origin. Scientific access to the.se t reasurcs is facilitated by the Indices, concerning which we shall speak below." The following details, based on information suppUed by Father Ehrle, S.J., prefect of the library, are the most accurate that have ever been given of the Vatican collections. The figures for the open collections represent the state of the library on 1 December, 1911 ; owing to the acquisi- tion of new manuscripts, these figures are gradually