B. The Archivo Segreto Vaticano
Fran Blouin and Len Coombs
in the Archivo Segreto
Vaticano
Over the years, the growth and complexity of an archive generally relates in an organic way to the development of the institution that generates the records in the course of its business. This. kind of relationship is certainly evident in the records extant in the Vatican Archives. The name Archivio Segreto was to imply private rather than secret. It is derived from its organizational antecedent the Bibliotheca Secreta, which was an area in the then new Vatican Library that was to hold working documents of the church that were accessible only to officials.
In order to understand the holdings of the ASV, it is necessary to have a sense of its history and its relationship to particular events in the history of the Holy See. In the brief overview that follows, three periods are of particular importance: first, the early centuries of the church; second the organizational reforms of Sixtus V and the reorganization of the Roman Curia; and third, the tumultuous events of the nineteenth century, which had a direct effect on the nature and content of the archival collections.
Early Centuries. In his guide to the ASV, Rev. Leonard Boyle, op, points out that even the earliest popes retained letters, acts of martyrs, and other significant documents in a scrinium or chartarium. I Since the popes in these earliest centuries of the church did not have a permanent residence, the collected documents were simply handed from pope to pope. By 649, it is apparent that these collections had found a permanent home in the Lateran Palace in Rome. By the eleventh century, the collection is known to have been moved to the slope of the Palatine Hill near the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. Most of these early records were on delicate papyrus and have long since disintegrated. Innocent III (1198-1216) was the first pope to recognize the need for a regularized form of record keeping. Copies of letters sent were entered by hand in great registers. This action inaugurated the Vatican Registers, still among the most important records of the archives. This series is one of the principal sources for documents on the papacy between the years 850 and the reorganization of the papacy in 1588. From the perspective of the history of the nature of documentation, the Vatican Registers are important in that they were regular in format and durable.
Moreover, during this period the papacy began to grow to the point that distinct offices began to emerge and keep records on a regular basis. The Apostolic Camera, the Chancery, the Datary, various secretaries, and the Roman Rota, all have their origins in this period of growth. This organizational framework was not nearly as extensive or formal as that implemented by Sixtus V.
During the period prior to 1588, there were likely many other kinds of documents that constituted the archives. However, during the Middle Ages, particularly after Innocent IV (1243-1254), the popes moved around a great deal. In 1245, Innocent IV is known to have taken a part of the archives with him to the Council of Lyon, after which the records remained for a while stored in the monastery at Cluny. Benedict XI (1303-1304) had the archives placed in Perugia. Clement V (1305-1314) then had the archives placed in Assisi where they remained until 1339, when Benedict XII (1334-1342) had them sent to Avignon.
The archives remained in Avignon during the time of the Great Schism. Once the difficulties were resolved, Martin V (1427-1431) had the records transported by boat and wagon to Rome, where they were temporarily housed in S. Maria Sopra Minerva, then established in his family palace (Colonna) in central Rome. Though important historical records were returned to Rome at this time, including the Vatican Registers, the Avignon material, the paper registers known as the Avignon Registers, were not incorporated into tire ASV until 1783.
The travels of significant records of the papacy attest to the rather informal administrative structure that characterized the Holy See during the first fifteen centuries of its history. Records were moved around as needed by the various popes. Moreover, not all popes felt compelled to leave all their documents for their successors because of what Owen Chadwick calls the "family nature of papal government." It was not uncommon for popes to draw their assistants from trusted members of their families. At the death of a pope, then, the papers might be transferred to the family's archives rather than be kept centrally within an administrative division of the Holy See. Some of these materials, such as those from the Borghese, the Barberini, and the Chigi families have come to the ASV and the Vatican Library as personal family donations.' Their presence as private manuscripts attests to this widespread practice even into the late seventeenth century.
Reforms of Sixtus V. The founding of the Vatican Library under Nicholas V (1447- 1455), marked the first step in bringing some control over the many volumes and documents in papal collections and in papal offices. Under Sixtus IV (1471-1484), specific quarters were established to house the great manuscript volumes and papers that would form the nucleus of the Vatican Library. At the same time he set aside a space called the Bibliotheca Secreta, which was to house documents of archival value. Documents considered of particular importance relating to privileges, grants, and claims were sent to the impenetrable and nearby Castel S. Angelo. Part of these documents form the current series in the ASV designated Archivum Arcis.
Throughout the sixteenth century efforts were made to bring together various collections of documents, including those of the Apostolic Camera, some which remained in private hands. In 1565, Pius IV (1559-1565) issued a brief that called for a .search through papal offices as well as throughout all the Papal States for records and documents generated by the work of his predecessors.
By the late sixteenth century the church, in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and the resulting Council of Trent, was resolved to affect internal reform of its own institution and to standardize its practices and dogma in a way that would define what, in fact, Catholicism was in the face of strong Protestant challenges. As a part of this overall effort, Sixtus V (1585-1590) instituted a sweeping reform of the central administration of the church. In 1588, he created fifteen permanent congregations of cardinals, six to administer secular administration and nine to oversee spiritual affairs. His arrangement remained largely intact until the reforms of 1908, though some would argue that it was only as a result of the Second Vatican Council that the basic structure was changed. Though no direct link between the initiative of Sixtus V and the formal establishment of the Vatican Archives can be established, it seems clear that the emerging bureaucracy needed a place to deposit its inactive records.
The records generated by these new congregations were the result of standardization of procedures. The resulting files or dossiers were then clearly the records of the individual congregations and would not travel with individual prefects or administrators. These records then constituted the first components of the archives of the newly established administrative structure of the church. Since so many records have survived, clearly each congregation took responsibility for caring for its inactive files.
It comes as no surprise, then, that in 1610, Paul V (1605-1621) called for the return of archival material relating to the papacy. In December 1611 he prepared rooms in the Belvedere palace in the Vatican to receive the archives. Six months later an archivist was appointed. At about the same time Paul V formally divided the library and the archives into two separate institutions with separate administrations. Over the subsequent forty- five years, documents and registers began to arrive at the new archive. All the holdings of the old Bibliotheca Secreta were transferred. The Vatican Registers and other documents of great importance were transferred from the Castel S. Angelo, including the records of the Council of Trent. Financial documents from the Apostolic Camera were also received.
As the records arrived, they were placed in a series of eighty cabinets or armaria. Over the years specific documents became associated with their specific cabinet numbers. These eighty cabinets remain the organizational framework for these early records that are considered the "original Vatican Archives."4
In 1656, Alexander VII (1655-1667) ordered that within the Secretariat of State, individual secretaries could no longer keep inactive files. They were required to transfer the records to the archives. This new authority established the archives as a central depository within the Vatican for inactive records. Over the successive centuries, a variety of departments in addition to that of the Secretariat of State have chosen to deposit records with the ASV. However, it is important to note that not all have chosen to do so. There remain throughout the Vatican several archival collections under an administration wholly separate from the ASV. To the extent possible, they are noted in this guide at the appropriate sections.
Chadwick emphasizes that this new central archive "owed nothing to the notion of helping scholars to write history. It was a business transaction intended to make the administration more efficient. " In fact, the archives was a closed institution open only to those in the administration of the Curia who had need to consult the records. Because of its close association with the business of the church during its early existence, the ASV grew further apart from the library and in essence was a division of the Secretariat of State.
Nineteenth Century. As a result of three events, the nineteenth century was an exceptionally noteworthy period for the ASV. The first arose from the ambition of Napoleon to consolidate the archives of his empire in Paris. The second was a direct result of the establishment of a unified Italian state and the effective removal of all temporal power from the pope. Third, perhaps in reaction to the second, was the formal opening of the archives for research use.
The first events surround the transport of the archives to Paris. While the territorial ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte are well known, his ambitions for a consolidated archive for his empire are often ignored. However, he did envision that the greatest art, manuscripts, and archives of his empire would be brought eventually to Paris. He planned a great central archive to be built in Reims (he later decided on Paris), where the archives of European capitals would be brought together. In December 1809, shortly after he arrested and imprisoned Pius VII (1800-1823), he dispatched one of his generals to Rome with instructions to bring to Paris the whole of the Vatican Archives.
The shipments via wagon began in 1810 and continued through 1813. In all, 3,239 chests arrived in Paris with very few lost. The inventory prepared by French archivists counted more than 102,435 registers, volumes, or bundles. The great central archives building was never realized, so the archives were stored in the Archives Nationales at the Palais Soubise.
With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the newly established authorities immediately ordered the archives returned to the Vatican. However, that was easier said than done. Napoleon had expended an enormous sum to transport the load' to Paris. Defeated France did not have the resources to return the archives. There are many stories and legends about the fate of the archives during the years between the order for their return and the arrival in Rome of the last of the chests in December 1817.
Because of the costs involved, some analysis was apparently done on the relative importance of various records in the archives. The responsibility for managing this operation was assigned to Count Giulio Ginnasi, with Marino Marini in charge of the actual work with the documents. In 1816 Ercole Consalvi, cardinal secretary of state, wrote to various congregations asking that they "specify what material formerly in their custody might be abandoned in Paris and, presumably, destroyed." Those deemed of lesser importance were separated and may have been sold for scrap paper. Other parts of the archives-particularly many of the records of the Holy Office pertaining to the Inquisition-though considered by some of major importance, were deliberately destroyed by the papal commissioners dispatched to oversee the transfer and eager to see the legacy of the Inquisition extinguished. Some chests were sent via ship and suffered water damage. Other material, considered unimportant or damaged, never left Paris and remains in the Archives Nationales.
In any case 3,239 chests were used to get the archives to Paris but only 2,200 were used for their return, and these arrived over an extended period of time. As the material began to arrive in Rome, many of the congregations were upset with what was returned and what was not. Their complaints resulted in the replacement of Ginnasi. John Tedeschi notes that added work needed to be done; this was financed by the sale of some of the registers of the Holy Office. However, in all probably about one-third of the material sent was lost. Losses were particularly great among the records of the Apostolic Datary and the Holy Office. Tedeschi notes that "among the untold treasures that perished in Paris were the youthful writings of Tommaso Campanello and the defense testimony of Giordano Bruno."
Bentley Library archivist Len
Coombs during pilot
project
With the incorporation of the Papal States into the new kingdom of Italy in 1870, documents of a civil nature identified in the ASV were transferred to the newly established Archivio di Stato di Roma. The division of the records in the archives was hasty and not always precise. As a result, records series for some congregations or offices are found in both archives. See, for example, entries in this guide for the Roman Rota and the Signatura Iustitiae. Particularly problematic are the financial records of the Apostolic Camera. Initially most of the cameral records were transferred. However, the Camera at times served both the temporal and spiritual interests of the pope. In 1918-1919 a significant portion of the cameral records was returned to the Vatican. Nevertheless material for the Camera is still found in both archival institutions.
A third event marks the transformation of the archives from an agency of institutional service to a research repository. On January 1, 1881, Leo XIII (1878-1903) opened the Archivio Segreto Vaticano to research use. He argued that the best defense for the church in addressing the charges of its critics would be to open the archives for the world to see. The church, Leo believed, had nothing to fear from a true history written from the actual sources. Documents created up to 1815 were made available. Scholars had no access to inventories or finding aids but rather had to rely on assistance from the staff archivists. But the archives were opened upon application. The archives then served for the first time as a center for research as well as a center for the administration of the inactive records of the Holy See.