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The Vatican Secret Archives (Latin: Archivum Secretum Vaticanum), located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. These archives also contain the state papers, correspondence, papal account books,1 and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archives were removed from the Vatican Library and remained absolutely closed to Vatican outsiders until the late 19th century, when they were opened by Pope Leo XIII.
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Extent
The Vatican Secret Archives have been estimated to contain 52 miles of shelving2, and there are 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone: "Publication of the indexes, in part or as a whole, is forbidden," according to the regulations current in 2005. The Secret Archives support their own photographic and conservation studios.
According to the Vatican website, the oldest surviving document dates back to the end of the eighth century. "Transfers and political upheavals nearly caused the total loss of all the archival material preceding Innocent III."3 From 1198 onwards more complete archives exist, though documentation is a little scanty before the thirteenth century. Since that time, the documentation includes items such as Henry VIII of England's request for a marriage annulment, and letters from Michelangelo.
Access
Adjacent to the Vatican Museum, its entrance is through the Porta di S. Anna in via di Porta Angelica (rione of Borgo). There is no browsing, and selected scholars must ask in advance for the precise document they wish to see; thus, they must know in advance that such a document exists. The catalogue is not complete. The Vatican estimates the linear length as about 85 kilometers (52.8 miles) of shelving. The current Archivist is His Eminence Cardinal Raffaele Farina, with Jorge Maria Cardinal Mejia and Luigi Cardinal Poggi holding the position of Archivist Emeritus.
Opening of the archives
Almost all organisations with archives have time restrictions on when their documents may be opened to the public, lest any documents have sensitive information that would be damaging if released. The Vatican Archives is no exception. Customarily, documents are made available to the public after a period of 75 years. The Secret Archives are still separately housed.
In 1883, Pope Leo XIII opened archives dated 1815 or earlier to non-clerical scholars. (The first papal historian to make fundamental use of the Secret Archives was the sympathetic historian of the Papacy, Ludwig von Pastor.) Documents were next released in 1924, when the Secret Archives became open up to the end of the pontificate of Gregory XVI (June 1, 1846). Since then, the secret archives of subsequent pontificates have been opened as follows:
- 1966: Documents from the pontificate of Pius IX (1846-1878). Note that the opening of Pius IX's pontificate was originally planned during the pontificate of Pius XII.
- 1978: Documents from the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878-1903).
- 1985: From the pontificates of Pius X (1903-1914) and Benedict XV (1914-1922).
On February 20, 2002, Pope John Paul II took the extraordinary step of making available, beginning in 2003, some of the documents from the Historical Archives of the Secretariat of State (Second Section), which pertain to the Vatican's relations with Germany during the pontificate (1922-1939) of Pope Pius XI. The Vatican's reason for this action was "to put an end to unjust and thoughtless speculation."4
In June 2006, Pope Benedict XVI authorized opening of all the Vatican Archives for the pontificate of Pope Pius XI.5 However, the files are not yet available for public review.citation needed
Archivists of the Holy Roman Church
- Agostino Cardinal Ciasca (19 May 1891 - 4 Jul 1893)
- Luigi Cardinal Galimberti (25 Jun 1894 - 7 May 1896)
- Francesco Cardinal Segna (4 Jul 1896 - 13 Jan 1908)
- Francesco Salesio Della Volpe 26 Oct 1908 - 26 Jan 1911)
- Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (1912 - 16 Dec 1913)
- Francesco di Paola Cassetta (14 Feb 1914 - 1917)
- Francis Aidan Gasquet (28 Nov 1917 - 5 Apr 1929)
- Franz Cardinal Ehrle (17 Apr 1929 - 31 Mar 1934)
- Giovanni Mercati (15 Jun 1936 - 23 Aug 1957)
- Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant (14 Sep 1957 - 27 Mar 1971)
- Antonio Cardinal Samore (25 Jan 1974 - 3 Feb 1983)
- Alfons Stickler (8 Sep 1983 - 1 Jul 1988)
- Antonio María Javierre Ortas (1 Jul 1988 - 24 Jan 1992)
- Luigi Cardinal Poggi (9 Apr 1992 - 7 Mar 1998)
- Jorge Maria Cardinal Mejia (7 Mar 1998 - 24 Nov 2003)
- Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran (24 Nov 2003 - 1 Sept 2007)
- Raffaele Cardinal Farina (1 Sept 2007 - )
Prefects of the Vatican Secret Archives
- Giuseppe Garampi (9 September 1751 – 27 January 1772)
- Fr. Mario Zampini (1772 – 1782)
- Fr. Gaetano Marini (1782 – 1815)
- Fr. Callisto Marini (1782 – 1822)
- Fr. Marino Marini (1815 – 1855)
- Fr. Augustin Theiner, O.S.A. (6 December 1855 – June 1870)
- Bishop Giuseppe Cardoni (8 June 1870 – March 1873)
- Carlo Cardinal Cristofori (14 April 1873 – 13 January 1877)
- Fr. Francesco Rosi Bernardini (17 January 1877 – June 1879)
- Joseph Hergenröther (9 June 1879 – 3 October 1890)
- Agostino Cardinal Ciasca, O.E.S.A. (13 June 1891 – July 1892)
- Fr. Peter Wenzel (28 July 1894 – 24 May 1909)
- Msgr. Mariano Ugolini (29 May 1909 – June 1925)
- Fr. Angelo Mercati (22 May 1925 – October 1955)
- Fr. Martino Giusti (1955 – April 1984)
- Fr. Josef Metzler, O.M.I. (24 May 1984 – 1996)
- Raffaele Farina (25 May 1997 - 25 June 2007)
- Sergio Pagano, B. (7 January 1997- present)
Other secret archives
There are other secret archives at the Vatican. An even more secret archive is kept by the Apostolic Penitentiary, which contains papal documents and other material that is not made public, as no one is allowed access due to the privacy of the confessor-penitent disputes for which the Penitentiary is responsible.6 Nevertheless the Secret Archives are the main collection.
References
- ^ See Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. III, 31.[1]
- ^ Secret Archives Accessible Online, Zenit
- ^ The Vatican Secret Archives: The Past, Vatican website
- ^ Vatican Archivists Rush to Declassify WWII Documents - Catholic World News, Feb. 20, 2002
- ^ Benedict XVI Opens Archives on Pius XI - Zenit News Agency, July 2, 2006
- ^ See the Seal of the Confessional.
Further reading
- Ambrosini, Maria Luisa. The Secret Archives of the Vatican. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969 (republished 1996). ISBN 0-7607-0125-3
- Blouin, Francis X. et al. (1998). Vatican Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documentation of the Holy See, New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509552-9.
- Pastor, Ludwig von. The history of the popes, from the close of the Middle Ages: (drawn from the secret archives of the Vatican and other original sources). from WorldCat. Reprints: Periodicals Service Company (New York) and Schmidt Periodicals GmbH (Germany)
- Borromeo, Agostino. L'inquisizione : atti del Simposio internazionale, Città del Vaticano ( The inquisition: actions of the international Symposium, Vatican City), Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 2003. ISBN 88-210-0761-8
See also
- Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Acts and Documents of the Holy See relative to the Second World War)
- Acta Apostolicae Sedis
- Relations between Catholicism and Judaism
- Henry Denifle Sub-archivist at the Vatican (1883-1905)
- Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Vatican Film Library, which contains microfilmed versions of some of the documents from the Archives, in St. Louis, Missouri
External links
- Vatican Secret Archive Official Web Site, including a history of the Secret Archives
- The Vatican Palace, as a Scientific Institute - Catholic Encyclopedia
- Roman Historical Institutes - Catholic Encyclopedia
- Ecclesiastical Archives - Catholic Encyclopedia
- Archives of the Holy See - New Catholic Dictionary, 1910 version
- University of Michigan Vatican Archives Project Detailed history, description and catalogue of archives
- Secret Archives of the Vatican article from Rotten.Com
- Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio: The Opening of the Roman Inquisition's Central Archive by Anne Jacobson Schutte, Perspectives Online, Published by the American Historical Association, May 1999
- Inside the Vatican - National Geographic, April 8, 2004
- An interview with Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, January 18, 2005. Sergio Pagano
News articles
- Inquisition Requires Calm, Objective Analysis, EWTN Library, from L'Osservatore Romano, November 11, 1998. Address of Pope John Paul II to the participants of the International Symposium on the Inquisition at the Vatican, October 31, 1998. In attendance was the internationally renowned historian Carlo Ginzburg. In 1979, Ginzburg sent a letter to the then newly elected Pope John Paul II, asking that the archives of the Holy office (the Roman Inquisition) be opened. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, credited Ginzburg, and his 1979 letter, as having been instrumental in the Vatican's decision to open these archives. [2]
- Vatican to Open Archives Tied to a Key Era in Germany, Zenit News Agency, October 29, 2002
- Vatican to computerize archives from the Holy Office, Inquisition - Catholic World News, Dec.5, 2002.
- Vatican 'dispels Inquisition myths' - BBC News, June 15, 2004
- John Paul II Letter on Inquisition Symposium - Zenit News Agency, June 15, 2004
- Scrutinizing the Inquisition; an "exposé of the tortures and injustices committed by various national Inquisitions..." - Zenit News Agency, June 24, 2004
- Jewish group threatens to sue Vatican for access to archives - Catholic News Service, January 28, 2005
- Vatican's secret archives now open to scholars - CathNews, September 19, 2006
- New Insights Into Vatican's Diplomacy "Documents from newly opened Vatican archives indicate..." - www.newsvine.com/ October 12, 2006
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- This page was last modified on 20 November 2008, at 18:29.
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