University of Michigan Vatican Archives Project
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Home Exhibits Reference University Records Michigan History Digital Curation Search Home > Academic > Vatican CONTENTS Brief Introduction A Note on Access HISTORY OF VATICAN ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS University of Michigan Vatican Archives Project Brief overview of the As a service to English speaking scholars who rely on the research administrative history of the resources of the Vatican, The Vatican Archives project of the Holy See University of Michigan over a period of 20 years (1984-2004) has The Archivio Segreto worked to integrate in a single information structure basic series level Vaticano information on the holdings not only of the Archivo Segreto Vaticano, Historical Documentation but also the holdings of the archives of the Propaganda Fide, the outside the Archivio Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Archivio de Stato di Roma (Papal States Segreto period), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The project also consulted other repositories such as Trinity College(Dublin) and the Archives Nationales (Paris) that for historical reasons have THE VATICAN ARCHIVES important Vatican archival material. PROJECT Description and Methodology The principal result of the The Initial Project 1989-1998 project was, Vatican Archives, An Inventory and The Supplemental Project Guide to Historical Documents 2003-2004 of the Holy See by Blouin, Coombs, Claudia Carlen, GUIDE AND SUPPLEMENT Elizabeth Yakel, and Katherine How to use the Guide and Gill, published by Oxford Supplement University Press in 1998. As well, approximately 1500 Sample Entry series description records were entered into RLIN, the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS bibliographic database of the Acknowledgements Research Libraries Group . Francis Blouin examining papal documents in the Archivo Segreto Vaticano 1150 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113 U.S.A. | 734.764.3482 | Fax: 734.936.1333 Reference: [email protected] | Webmaster: [email protected] Copyright ©2015 The Regents of the University of Michigan Last modified: July 05, 2007 3:22:44 PM EDT. Banner image from Jasper Cropsey's The University of Michigan Campus, 1855 converted by Web2PDFConvert.com Home Exhibits Reference University Records Michigan History Digital Curation Search Home > Academic > Vatican CONTENTS Note on Access Brief Introduction By the very nature of archives, all archival institutions evolve over A Note on Access time. This can be evidenced in the accessioning of additional material, the presentation of new finding aids, and the release of information previously restricted. Repositories of the Vatican certainly experience HISTORY OF VATICAN these changes. Until recently Vatican Archival repositories, open for ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS research use, restricted all material dated after January 22, 1922 ( the Brief overview of the end of the pontificate of Benedict XV). Recently, however, it was administrative history of the announced that on February 15, 2003 (Bollettino della sala Stampa Holy See della Santa Sede N. 0090, February 15, 2002) that series of The Archivio Segreto documents of the Holy See relating to Germany from 1922-1939 (the Vaticano pontificate of Pius XI) would be opened for research. The documents Historical Documentation would be made available through the services of the Archivio Segreto outside the Archivio Vaticano. Series of particular interest include: Baviera (1922-1939) Segreto and Germania (1922-1939) from the archives of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; and the Archivio della Nunziatura Apostolica de Monaco di Baviera (1922-1934) Guide 4.8.1, and Archivio THE VATICAN ARCHIVES della Nunziatura Apostolica in Berlino (1922-1930) Guide 4.41.1. Note PROJECT that records 1931-1942 for the Nunciature in Berlin were destroyed in Description and Methodology the bombing of Berlin in 1943. The archives of the Congregation for The Initial Project 1989-1998 Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs contains sensitive matters of a The Supplemental Project diplomatic nature and is generally not accessible for research purposes 2003-2004 and was not inventoried in the Guide. The named series will be transferred from that archives to the Archivo Segreto. It is expected that all records in the Archivo Segreto Vaticano for the pontificate of GUIDE AND SUPPLEMENT Pius XI (1922-1939) will be opened to research by 2005. How to use the Guide and After that, on December 17, 2002, it was announced that the Supplement Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will also make available, Sample Entry from February 15, 2003, its own records through 1939 on matters relating to Germany, Nazism, Fascism and the condemnation of racism. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With a decree of July 26, 2001, responsibility was delegated to the Acknowledgements Vatican Library for the control, inspection, and protection of all goods related to books and archives of Vatican City and extraterritorial property of the Holy See. The same law mandated that within two years a summary inventory of all books, archive material, and museum items be prepared. It is still not clear what form this survey may take. It does offer the opportunity to see for the first time the full extent of archival holdings within the total framework of the Holy See. 1150 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113 U.S.A. | 734.764.3482 | Fax: 734.936.1333 Reference: [email protected] | Webmaster: [email protected] Copyright ©2015 The Regents of the University of Michigan Last modified: July 05, 2007 3:22:43 PM EDT. Banner image from Jasper Cropsey's The University of Michigan Campus, 1855 converted by Web2PDFConvert.com Home Exhibits Reference University Records Michigan History Digital Curation Search Home > Academic > Vatican CONTENTS A. Brief Overview of the Administrative History of the Brief Introduction Holy See A Note on Access The historical documentation generated by the Holy See over the course of its history constitutes one of the most HISTORY OF VATICAN important sources for research on the ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS history of Christianity, the history of Brief overview of the the evolution of the modern state, the administrative history of the history of Western culture and Holy See institutions, the history of exploration The Archivio Segreto and colonization, and much more. Vaticano Though important, it has been difficult Historical Documentation to grasp the extent of this outside the Archivio documentation. This guide represents Segreto the first attempt to describe in a single work the totality of historical documentation that might properly be THE VATICAN ARCHIVES considered Vatican archives. Interior courtyard of the Vatican PROJECT Description and Methodology Although there are Vatican archival records in a number of repositories that have been included in this publication, this guide is designed The Initial Project 1989-1998 primarily to provide useful information to English-speaking scholars who The Supplemental Project have an interest in using that portion of the papal archives housed in 2003-2004 the Vatican Archives or Archivio Segreto Vaticano (ASV). As explained more fully below, it the result of a project conducted by archivists and historians affiliated with the University of Michigan. The project, GUIDE AND SUPPLEMENT initiated at the request of the prefect of the ASV, focused on using How to use the Guide and modem computer database technology to present information in a Supplement standardized format on surviving documentation generated by the Holy Sample Entry See. This documentation is housed principally in the ASV but is also found in a variety of other repositories. This guide is, in essence, the final report of the results of this project. What follows is a complete ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS printout of the database that was constructed. Acknowledgements The database structure used in compiling the information was predicated on principles that form the basis for the organization of the archives of most modem state bureaucracies (e.g., provenance). Fundamentally, that is, one cannot understand the true nature of archival material unless one understands the administrative divisions, functions, and processes of the organization that generated those archives. Thus, the conceptual framework for this guide is based on the organizational structure of the Holy See. Historically, the Holy See (also called the Apostolic See) has functioned in several different capacities, leading to a very complicated structure of congregations, commissions, offices, and so forth; it is the central government of the Roman Catholic church; it has functioned as a royal court; it served until 1870 as the civil government of the Papal States; it has functioned since 1929 as the civil government of Vatican City. Numerous offices have been established and abolished over the years to meet the needs of these different functions. This guide presents a brief history of each of these various offices and then links each office or agency to its extant records. The administration of the Holy See has a history that is long, complex, and for the early years not fully known. The extant records of the papacy reflect two general periods of development. The first, from the medieval period through the mid-sixteenth century, and the second from the mid-sixteenth through the early twentieth century. The latter part of the twentieth century saw further changes. During the first period, the affairs of the Holy See were handled primarily by the Apostolic Chancery. As the Chancery became busier, other offices and specialized subdepartments were developed at various times. Among these were the Apostolic Camera and the Datary. Toward the end of this period, special commissions of cardinals began to be created to handle the ever-increasing number and complexity of questions to be examined. The first of these commissions with a permanent character was the Congregation of the Inquisition, set up by Paul III in 1542. This was followed by others. In 1588 Sixtus V organized the extant commissions or congregations and established additional bodies. Sixtus's Curia was made up of fifteen congregations, each charged with part of the governance of converted by Web2PDFConvert.com the church and its holdings. This action is considered the origin of the modern Roman Curia.