Guide to Documents Relating to French and British North America in ...

pattern may be missing or wrong. In other cases, cross-references do not correspond to Acta. This
might mean that the matter was not reported before the General Congregation, or was reported and no
decision made; again, its proceedings might have been assembled with another item, or simply lost. In
general, however, by knowing the date of a General Congregation and the item number as shown in
Acta, it is easy to locate the original documents.
3. FONDO VIENNA
This is not an original series that stemmed from the administrative work of Propaganda officials.
The Fondo Vienna series was created in 1925, when a number of volumes were transferred from
Vienna to Rome. They were among others that had been taken to Paris during the French occupation
of Rome. Most of them were soon after returned to the Holy See, but some were 10st. 7 Since the
transfer from Vienna took place when related series had already been progressively numbered, they
were left apart as a special series, with volumes numbered from 1 to 74 regardless of the original series
to which they had previously belonged.
According to their series of origin, volumes of Fondo Vienna can be divided into sub-series:
- vols. 1-20: SOCG
- vols. 21-24: Congregazioni Particolari
- vols. 25-38: Congressi
- vols. 39-50: Decreti
- vols. 51-55: Collectio Decretorum
- vols. 56-61: Dubia et resolutiones
- vols. 62-70: Registro dei brevi
- vols. 71-74: Varia
Documents of some of the sub-series did not differ from the ones still preserved in their original
series of provenance (SOCG, Congregazioni Particolari, Congressi, Decreti). Other sub-series need a
few more words of explanation.
- Collectio decretorum. A collection of decrees, decisions and instructions issued by Propaganda that
were collected in four tomes by order of Benedict XIV. Vol. 55 is the index to the sub-series.
- Dubia et resolutiones. A collection of cases that were discussed by the Sacred Congregations of the
Council, of the Holy Office and of the Rites, in seven tomes. Tome 1 is missing.
- Registro dei brevi. Register of briefs issued between 1701 and 1809, in 12 tomes. Tomes I, 2 and
4 are missing. Vol. 70 is the alphabetical index to the briefs by countries.
- Varia. Four volumes of miscellaneous origin. This sub-series has the same origin as the series
Miscellanee Diverse, Miscellanee Generali and Miscellanee Varie.
4. INFORMAZIONI
This series consists of two different parts. The 14 volumes of the first part (vols. 118, 120, 134-
136, 156-158, 162-167) seem to come from the Society of Jesus, and the numbers on their spines
probably derive from the original numbering system of some other archives. All volumes of the first
part, except for vol. 135 (Ethiopia and South-East Asia) and vol. 136 (various missions), deal with
China (i.e,. vols. 118, 120, 134, 156-158, 162-167), and are organized in 12 tomes.
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