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

history of New France,!4 while John J. McCusker, in an article reviewing the primary sources for the
history "of Early British America, mentions the Calendar (in preparation) and a number of previous
works. ls
In 1961, Kowalsky published his inventory of the archives of Propaganda. 16 The Inventario
immediately became the indispensable tool of all historians and archivists working in Propaganda, and
yet it soon became evident that a revised version of the first inventory was needed. In 1983 a new
inventory was published, compiled by Josef Metzler,!7 archivist of Propaganda from 1966 to 1984,
which revises and enlarges Kowalsky's old inventory.ls The inventory proper is preceded by a short
history of the foundation of Propaganda and its purpose, and followed by a short bibliography
(somewhat incomplete) and a list of prefects and secretaries of the Congregation. 19
Kowalsky also published a history of the archives of Propaganda and of their archivists,20while
his successor, Metzler, published a review of all indices of the documents of Propaganda compiled
since 1657. 21
2. CALENDARS AND INVENTORIES
The first list of documents preserved in the archives of Propaganda was published, without the
name of the compiler, in 1910. 22 It is completely drawn from Fish's Guide,23 and, according to the
introduction, deals with Canada only. It is a list of documents subdivided into archival series (Acta,
SOCG, Congressi, Memoriali, Scripta Varia). They are dated and their contents briefly summarized, but
their more precise location is not given. Memoriali and Scripta Varia are not included in the
Propaganda material, showing that the compiler was not familiar with the documentary material he
listed. 24 The only usefulness of this list, which pre-dates Fish's Guide, was to draw the attention of
Canadian historians and archival authorities to the importance of the archives of the Holy See. The
compiler of the list hoped that Roman documents of Canadian interest would have been copied,2Sbut,
Morin's assertions notwithstanding,26the project never became a reality.
The portion of Ivanhoe Caron's calendar, published between 1939 and 1942, that deals with
Propaganda is drawn from the above list. 27 Caron compiled a chronological list (from 1610 to 1729)
of manuscripts and printed matter preserved in various repositories, dealing with the Canadian church
during the French regime. In the calendar there is no mention of the archives of Propaganda, all Roman
documents being designated as "Documents du Vatican." Caron draws from the 1910 list those
documents that seem to fit into his new compilation. It is a third-hand work that confuses rather than
improves the knowledge of Roman archives in general and of Propaganda in particular. In his
introduction,28Caron states that copies of the documents contained in his calendar are at the Public
(now National) Archives of Canada and at the Archives de l' Archev~che de Quebec.
We now must go back to 1911 and examine in some detail Fish's Guide to the Materials for
American History in Roman and Other Archives. 29 Being both a guide and calendar cited by all
historians and archivists, Fish's work has until very recently been the only good finding aid for the
history of North America. In many respects, it is still the only work available. Fish worked in Italy
from September 1908 to the end of August 1909,30and did a prodigious amount of research for such
a short stay. He visited a great number of archives and libraries all over Italy, which he described in
his work,31but gave special attention to the archives of Propaganda, which he considered "more
important than all others taken together."32The title of Fish's Guide, probably dictated by J. Franklin
Jameson, general editor of the Carnegie Institution series, is somewhat misleading. Fish examined "all
general references to America or the Western Indies and all documents of interest for general American
history [...] together with everything relating to Cuba and the northern provinces and bishoprics of
Mexico, because of their connection with the missions of Florida and the Western States."33Fish's aim
42