538 American Archivist / Vol. 52 / Fall 1989 The International Scene Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/4/538/2747883/aarc_52_4_n0928p1tk0672762.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 A New Access System for the Vatican Archives LEONARD A. COOMBS Abstract: The Vatican Archives, one of the major national and religious archives of the world, contains records from as early as the ninth century and continuous documentation of the church administration from trie twelfth century to the present. Although a variety of specialized guides describe various parts of the archives, the lack of a comprehensive inventory of holdings makes access difficult for researchers. A team of archivists from the University of Michigan has begun a project to create a comprehensive, provenance- based access system, working from existing guides and inventories. The author, who is a member of the team, summarizes the history of the Vatican Archives and describes the plan of work for the project. About the author: Leonard A. Coombs is associate archivist at the Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. He has been associated since 1987 with the University of Michigan project to create a new access system for the Vatican Archives. A slightly different version of this paper was presented at the Midwest Archives Conference, Chicago, May 1989. New Access System for the Vatican Archives 539 THE VATICAN ARCHIVES, OFFICIALLY the the administration they served was formal- Archivio Segreto Vaticano or Vatican Secret ized in any continuing way. Archives, is one of the major national and In the centuries following Innocent's re- religious archives of the world. It contains cord-keeping innovation, the archives suf- some 50,000 linear feet of official records of fered great losses, partly because the records the popes and of the central administration were packed up and moved with the pope Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/4/538/2747883/aarc_52_4_n0928p1tk0672762.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 of the Catholic Church. Because of the con- when he travelled outside of Rome. In the tinuing role of the church and the popes over fourteenth century alone, the archives were the millennia—on the political stage as well moved from Rome to Perugia, Assisi, as in the life of faith—the archives is im- Avignon, and later Geneva, with portions portant not only for the study of religious being left behind at each stop. Finally, at history but also for the study of political, the end of the Great Schism, most of the economic, cultural, and social life through- archives were moved from Geneva back to out the world. Continuous documentation of Rome between 1419 and 1422, by Pope the church administration can be found in the Martin V. archives from the twelfth century to the pres- Later in the fifteenth century a distinc- ent, while the earliest documents date from tion began to be drawn between the pope's the ninth century. library and the archives. The most precious Unfortunately, the access system at the archival documents were moved to the Cas- Vatican Archives is imperfect. There is no tel Sant' Angelo, the papal castle near the comprehensive inventory of holdings. The Vatican Palace. This move proved benefi- organization and arrangement of the ar- cial to the archives in 1527. During the chives' unpublished inventories, as well as sack of Rome by the armies of the German those of the records themselves, are not ap- Emperor Charles V the papal library was parent to the neophyte researcher. It was this looted and the streets were strewn with pa- less-than-perfect access system that led Fran- pal documents and manuscripts, but the ar- cis X. Blouin, Jr., director of the Bentley chives in the Castel Sant' Angelo were Historical Library, to propose a University untouched. of Michigan project to create a new, prove- The beginnings of the modern Vatican nance-based access system for the archives. Archives, along with the origins of the The checkered history of the archives has church administration that it documents, had a great effect on the development of the came as part of the church reforms of the current access system.1 Pope Innocent III, a Counter-Reformation. In 1565 Pope Pius lawyer who reigned at the end of the twelfth IV set up a central church archives in the century, was the first to regularize the church's Vatican Palace, in order to make access archival policy. The earliest extant registers easier for administrators. His successor, Pius of outgoing letters begin with his reign. The V, decreed that private archives be searched archives in this period were merely a part of for registers and other papal documents, and the pope's library. Neither the archives nor that inventories be made of the archives in their various storage places. The archives in this era were seen as a source of the 'The following summary of the history of the Vat- pope's temporal power. As a Vatican ma- ican Archives is based primarily on the brief history jor-domo of the time pointed out, "Old found in Leonard E. Boyle, A Survey of the Vatican documents are non-military weapons for Archives and of its Medieval Holdings (Toronto: Pon- tifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1972), 7-12, holding on to the property we have ac- and the longer, but still relatively brief, history in quired."2 Owen Chadwick, Catholicism and History: The Opening of the Vatican Archives (Cambridge: Gam- bridge University Press, 1978). 2Ludwig von Pastor, The History of the Popes, from 540 American Archivist / Fall 1989 Because it was more convenient to have his archives in the Vatican than in the nearby castle, Pope Paul V built the present ar- chives building in the Vatican Palace in 1610. The first records, transferred from the Vatican Library, the Castel Sant' An- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/4/538/2747883/aarc_52_4_n0928p1tk0672762.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 gelo, and other places, were stored in spe- cially designed cabinets, or armaria, where they are still found today. But all official records did not become part of the archives. In spite of the formal organization of the Curia, until 1692 the administration of the Vatican was con- ducted primarily by a relative of the pope, known as the Cardinal nephew. When the pope died and the nephew left office, his papers remained with his family archives, not with the Vatican Archives. As a result, important administrative records are scat- tered among the archives of the great Ro- man families. The Vatican Archives was considered Figure 1: Interior courtyard in the Archivo strictly administrative in the early centu- Segreto Vaticano (Courtesy of the Bentley His- ries, open only to the pope, the Secretary torical Library, University of Michigan) of State, or someone acting on their orders. Occasionally it was open to others. In 1737, for instance, Cardinal Acquaviva, acting for In the same period, Pope Sixtus V de- the king of Spain, saw the secret letters of fined the modern administrative system of the Secretary of State on payment of a suit- the Roman Curia in the constitution Im- able fee to the archives staff. The organi- mensa Dei, issued in 1588. With this sys- zation of the records was not well developed, tem, consisting of congregations (similar to due to the small size of the staff, which executive departments), tribunals (similar sometimes led to embarrassment for the ar- to courts), and offices (especially secre- chives. During the negotiations of the 1640s taries), the cardinals were reduced in a way leading to the Peace of Westphalia, the pa- to agents of the popes, members of a bu- pal envoy Chigi requested copies of docu- reaucracy. By his action, Sixtus V made ments relating to the papal protest against the church a prototype of the modern con- the terms of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, stitutional, bureaucratic state.3 but the archivists could not find them. Be- ginning in 1740 Pope Benedict XIV pro- vided more support for the archives, the Close of the Middle Ages (London: Hodges, 1891- increasing the size of the staff and encour- 1953), 25:101-102, quoted in Chadwick, Catholicism aging the development of indexes by ar- and History, 9. chivist Giuseppe Garampi.4 3H. Outram Evennett, The Spirit of the Counter- Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 114-115; Paolo Prodi, The Papal Prince: One Body and Two Souls: The Papal Monarchy in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University "The Vatican Archives uses the term index generi- Press, 1987), 2-3. cally to refer to its finding aids. New Access System for the Vatican Archives 541 Unfortunately for the archives, the inter- brary were completely closed, and their vention of Napoleon followed shortly after doors walled up. Garampi's work, leading to disruption of The complete closure turned out to be the archives and destruction of records. The only a pause before a great liberalization. bulk of the archives was removed to Paris As part of a program of reconciling the on the order of Napoleon in 1810 and 1811, Vatican to European governments, the ar- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/4/538/2747883/aarc_52_4_n0928p1tk0672762.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 as part of a plan to create a consolidated chives was opened to qualified researchers central archives of Europe. French archi- by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. The volume of vists saw the archives as a powerful tool to new accessions increased as a result of the combat the religious and political power of increased visibility of the archives after its the pope.