Brief Introduction

In 1984, the encouragement of the prefect of the Vatican Archives, Rev. Josef Metzler, and the prefect of the Vatican Library, Rev. Leonard Boyle, Francis Blouin, along with Thomas Powers and Leonard Coombs embarked on a project to apply basic descriptive methodology, common to most modern archival institutions, to the holdings of the Vatican Archives. With a small grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research and an invitation to be visiting scholars at the American Academy in Rome, the three traveled to the Vatican to test the idea on the Vatican's diplomatic records.

In 1989, with funding from the Getty Grant program, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc., The National Endowment for the Humanities, Homeland Foundation of New York, and the American Friends of the Vatican Library, a full scale project was launched that would integrate in a single database basic series level information on the holdings not only of the Archivo Segreto Vaticano, but also the records of the archives of Propaganda Fide, the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Archivio de Stato di Roma (Papal States period), and misc. at other repositories such as Trinity College(Dublin) and the Archives Nationales (Paris).

The principal result of the project was, Vatican Archives, An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See by Blouin, Coombs, Claudia Carlen, Elizabeth Yakel, and Katherine Gill, published by Oxford University Press in 1998. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of extant historical documentation generated by the Holy See since the ninth century. Most previous guides have quite rightly emphasized the great holdings of medieval and Renaissance records in the Vatican Archives, such as the Vatican Registers and the contents of the original cabinets or "armaria." This guide has a different point of departure; it is organized around the bureaucratic structure of the Holy See from the time of its establishment under Sixtus V and is thus divided into the following sections: Part 1, College of Cardinals; Part 2, Papal Court; Part 3, Roman Curia (Congregations, Offices, and Tribunals); Part 4, Apostolic Nunciatures, Internunciatures, and Delegations; Part 5, Papal States; Part 6, Permanent Commissions; and Part 7, which includes miscellaneous official material and separate collections of personal papers and organizational records.

The organization of the first six sections reflect this post-1588 conception of the bureaucratic structure of the Holy See, though earlier material is included. In general the holdings and structure of the records generated by the Holy See in these more recent centuries are not as well known as those for the late medieval period. The seventh section lists some official records series that the project staff could not match with the the specific offices and agencies that form the bureaucratic framework of the previous six.

This seventh section also includes listings of personal papers of individuals acquired by Vatican archival repositories. Though designated personal papers, many of these collections have material that shed light on the official work of the Holy See. Also listed in this section are collections of records of institutions separate in organization from the Holy See but formed for a religious purpose. These institutions include religious orders, confraternities, and particular churches. Therefore, the agencies created by the curial reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the reforms of Paul VI and John Paul II have not been incorporated into this guide. Moreover, the structure of the government of the state of Vatican City created at the time of the Lateran Treaty of 1929 has not been incorporated into the guide.

At the time of publication the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) was closed to research. Not long after the publication of the Oxford volume, it was announced by the Vatican that the CDF archive would be opened to research for the first time since its founding in 15xx. In February 2003, with funding from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Francis Blouin, while a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, worked with Peter Horsman of the Archiefschool in The Hague, to inventory its holdings that included extant records of the post-Reformation Inquisition and of the Congregation for the Index of Forbidden Books. The Bentley Library published the results of that effort in 2004.

References

The text of this website has been adapted from:

  • Vatican Archives, An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See
    edited by Francis Blouin, Leonard Coombs, Claudia Carlen, Elizabeth Yakel, and Katherine Gill, published by Oxford University Press in 1998. See in particular pages xv-xl for specific references and citations.
    ORDER: From Oxford University Press [online catalog]

  • Vatican Archives, An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See: Supplement #1 The Archives of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
    edited by Francis Blouin, Peter Horsman, Leonard Coombs, Elizabeth Yakel, , published by the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. See in particular pages 1-6 or specific references and citations.
    ORDER : From Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan, 1150 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor MI 48109