Hertogenbosch, Groningen, Haarlem, Maastricht, Middelburg
and Utrecht.
Town archives are for the most part well preserved. Printed inventories generally exist, and in some cases, e.g. at Doesburg, the archives contain information as to the relations between the Hanse and England in the 14th century.
Dutch repositories have no administrative inter-Connexion. Each archivist reports yearly to the archivist-in-chief of the kingdom, and since 1878 these Verslagen omtrent Rijks oude Archieven have been printed.
The English Public Record Office has four volumes of transcripts from Dutch archives.
Italy.—The administration of the public records of the kingdom is attached to the Ministry of the Interior, for which office Signor Vazio published (1883) his Relazione sugli archivi di stato italiani. There are seventeen repositories, representing the ancient divisions of the kingdom. The most important are the following:—
Florence, containing records of the foreign correspondence of the dukes of Tuscany and the Florentine republic.
Genoa, records of the republic.
Milan. records of the duchy, in particular the registers called L’Archivio Panigarola.
Modena, records of the family of Este.
Naples, in particular the Cancelleria Angioina, records of the Angevin kings of Naples, containing documents relative to their extensive dominions in Provence, Anjou and elsewhere, for a bibliographical account of which see Les Archives Angevines de Naples; études sur les registries du Roi Charles Iᵉʳ, by Paul Durrieu. Naples also possesses the important Archivio Farnesiano, mainly records of the duke of Parma, brought there by Charles I. of Bourbon on his accession to the throne of the Two Sicilies in 1735.
Palermo, the records of the island of Sicily.
Rome, the most important records of the Archivio di Stato are those relating to the papal government which were not transferred to the Vatican in 1871.,
Turin, the archives of the house of Savoy, especially the letters from envoys at foreign courts, a series of very important reports.
Venice, the convent dei Frari contains probably the most interesting collection of records in Italy. Rawdon Brown, G. Cavendish Bentinck, and H. F. Brown have edited many of the principal documents relating to England in the State Papers: Venetian (Record Office), which are still in progress. The Record Office also possesses two hundred and ten volumes of transcripts from Venetian archives, mostly the reports and correspondence of ambassadors, together with Rawdon Brown's large collection of similar materials, mainly originals or early copies (see Report 46).
The Vatican.—For the history of the papal archives the work of H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien (Leipzig, 1889), may be consulted. The best English account is contained in an article in the American Historical Review (October 1896), by C. H. Haskins. But certain of the prefaces to the Record Office Calendar mentioned below may be consulted; and the description given by Langlois and Stein (op. cit.) is useful. The Vatican archives have been open to students only since the year 1881. The chief portion of the collection is that called the Archivio Segreto, which may be divided into two heads, the original Archivio Segreto and the archives added to it from Avignon, from the castle of St Angelo and from special offices such as the Consistory, Dataria Apostolica, Rota, Secretaria Brevium, Signatura Gratiae, Penitentiary, and Master of the Ceremonies. The records of the congregations of the Index, the Holy Office and the Propaganda are not usually accessible to students.
Since 1881 the importance of the archives has attracted to Rome many bands of students. Most European governments have arranged for the publication of records dealing with their own countries. The classes of documents that have received most attention are the Regesta, or registers of bulls and briefs, issued by the papal chancery; the Supplicationes, or petitions; and the Nuntiaturae, or dispatches received from the nuncios and instructions sent to them. An account of the numerous publications will be found in the works already mentioned. Here it is only possible to mention-the English publications. The Record Office in London has published one volume of Petitions, 1342–1417, and a Calendar from the Regesta, which covers the period 1198–1431. The French government is publishing a complete Calendar of the Regesta up to the end of the 13th century. There are in the English Public Record Office one hundred and sixty-two volumes of transcripts from the Vatican archives arranged in two series.
Norway.—The records of Norway are preserved at Christiania, and include a collection of papers of Christian II., king of Denmark. For the contents of the collection, see Diplomatarium Norvegicum, by Lange and Unger (1849–1891); and Norske Rigsregistranter tildeels i uddrag, dealing with the 16th and 17th centuries.
Portugal.—Portuguese royal records are in the monastery of Sao Bento at Lisbon. The collection suffered much during the earthquake of 1755. It includes the registers of the Chancery since the 13th century, and a large number of documents subsidiary to them. In addition to this repository there are collections at the various ministries; from the records of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Borges de Castro, and afterwards Judice Biker, published their Collecção dos Tratados . . . entre a Corona de Portugal e as mais potentias. There are three volumes of transcripts from Portuguese records in the English Public Record Office.
Russia.—The records of the Russian government are distributed in various repositories in Moscow and St Petersburg. At the former are preserved the records of the foreign relations of Russia down to 1801; permission to use them can be obtained from the Minister for Foreign Affairs: there are no printed lists, but many in manuscript. At Moscow are also preserved the records of the Ministry of Justice. In vol. xliv. of the Revue historique (1890) there is an article by J.-J. Chemko and L.-M. Balffol on Les Archives de l’empire russe à Moscow. The records of government offices at St Petersburg are not open to students. There are minor repositories at various provincial capitals, and the records of the Grand Duchy of Finland are at Helsingfors. There are three volumes of transcripts from Russian records at the English Public Record Office.
Spain.—The nearest approach to a central Record Office for Spain is the Archivo General Central, established by a royal ordinance of 1858 at Alcala de Henares, near Madrid. The collection there includes, in addition to the general administrative records of the kingdom, valuable historical matter concerning the Inquisition, the Jesuits, and other subjects. There is also at Madrid a repository known as the Archivo Histórico Nacional, which contains the archives of crown lands and suppressed monasteries, with a printed inventory. The remaining records are distributed locally in separate repositories containing the archives of the old kingdoms. Those of Castile are partly at Simancas and partly at Alcala de Henares. Those of Aragon are at Barcelona in the Palacio de los Condes. Those of Navarre are at Pamplona and difficult of access. The remainder are of small importance.
In addition to these there are two collections requiring notice, the Archivo general de Indias at Seville and the papers of the Consulado del Mar at Bilbao.
The English Public Record Office is publishing a Calendar of the papers relating to England in Spanish and other connected archives. The introduction to the first volume, edited by C. Bergenroth, contains a sketch of the records used by him; and the series, under the successive editorship of Bergenroth, Don Pasquale de Gayangos and Major Martin Hume, now extends from the reign of Henry VIII. to the year 1603. The Record Office possesses sixty-five volumes of transcript from Spanish archives.
Sweden.—The archives have not yet been centralized, and large collections exist at the various ministries. The most important records, however, are the Royal Archives (Rigsarchivet), preserved in the island of Riddarholmen, Stockholm. A great many publications have been based on these: there are for instance an inventory, Middlelanden fran Svenska Rigsarchivet; a work bearing generally on Scandinavian history, Handlingar rörande Scandinnaviens historia; and the Diplomotarium Suecicum, which is still in progress. The English Record Office has seven volumes of transcripts from the Stockholm archives, with a report.
Private collections are numerous and valuable, and a society for exploring and publishing such records is supported by the state.
Switzerland.—The Swiss records are of two kinds:records of the confederation, and records of the several cantons. The first are in the Bundes-Archiv at Berne, and date from 1798; see General Repertorium der Acten des helvetischen Centralarchivs in Bern, 1708–1803, and Schweizerisches Urkunden-Register, by B. Hidber, vol. ii. (Berne, 1877). The Cantonal records, some of them of very early date, are at the chief town of each canton, and for the most part are provided with manuscript inventories. For those of Geneva, see also Les Archives de Genève, edited by F. Turrettini and A. C. Grivel (1877). For the records of the Abbey of St Gall, see Urkundenbuch der Abtei St Gallen, edited by H. Wartmanne (1863–1882); and for those of Zurich, Urkztndenbuch der Stadt und Landschaft Zitrich, by P. Schweitzer and E. Escher (1889–1892).
There are in the English Public Record Office five volumes of transcripts from the Bundes-Archiv.
United States of America
The records, among which transcripts made in England, France, and Holland hold an important place, may be divided into: Federal, kept at Washington; those in private collections; and State Records at the various state capitals. The publication and care of all these are often the work of private bodies subsidized or recognized by government. Thus, although Federal archives are now centralized under the charge of the head of the division of Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, which office is acquiring important collections of the papers of former presidents, and may also have transferred to it departmental records not in current use, publication of guides is the concern of the historical section of the Carnegie Institution and of the Archives Commission of the Historical Association. The same association explores private collections through its Historical Manuscripts Commissiorv; and numerous societies publish state' records. Some states, however, have themselves published American and European documents relating to their history; and mention must be made of the large series of American Archives and State Papas published from 1832 onwards by Congress.
