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

Congregation of the Consistory, the Holy Office, etc. It also contains documents that derive from the
relationship between the Holy See and the various religious orders (Fondo Gesuiti, Fondo Cappuccini,
Fondo Francescani), or documents that were once filed by Holy See officials among their private papers
(Fondo Albani, Fondo Borghese, Fondo Carpegna), besides documents directly dealing with the missions
that, as a rule, should be in the archives of Propaganda (Fondo Missioni).6
Until fairly recently, the only clue to the importance of the Vatican Secret Archives were Fish's
Guide and Conrad Morin's thesis.? However, two Canadian researchers working from September 1982
to July 1984 in Rome prepared a very important calendar of Vatican documents dealing with North
America in the years 1600 to 1799. 8 In their comprehensive survey of 727 volumes or bundles of the
series Francia (formerly Nunziatura di Francia) of the archives of the Secretary of State, Monique
Benoit and Gabriele Scardellato were able to study in great detail the correspondence (in the broader
sense of the term) between the nuncio in Paris and the secretary of state. Their calendar consists of
1,050 entries, an introduction, a list of nuncios and secretaries of state, the list of all volumes and
bundles consulted, and a comprehensive index. Given the oftentimes confused organization of material
in Francia, BenOIt and Scardellato chose to survey its contents topographically, from vol. 53 to vol.
662. Calendar entries also follow this numerical, as opposed to chronological, sequence.
Benoit and Scardellato also prepared an additional calendar of selected documents from various
documents of the Vatican Secret Archives. 9 These series are as follows:
.- Processus Datariae
- Segreteria Apostolica, Epistolae ad Principes
- Segreteria Apostolica, Segreteria dei Brevi
- Segreteria di Stato, Lettere di Principi
- Segreteria di Stato, Lettere di Vescovi
- Fondo (Archivio) Concistoriale, Acta Camerarii
- Fondo (Archivio) Concistoriale, Processus Consistoriales
- Sacra Congregatio Consistorialis, Acta Congregationis Consistorialis
- Sacra Congregatio Consistorialis, Congregationis Consistoriales
- Sacra Congregatio Consistorialis, Positiones Congreg. Em. Cap. Ordinum
- Sacra Congregatio Consistorialis, Praeconia et Propositiones
- Acta Sacrae Congregationis super Disciplina Regularium.
Because of the limited research time available, the two researchers were not able to carry out an
exhaustive survey of the above series. Instead, they selected the series to be examined on the basis of
references found in scholarly studies or even research notes, in particular those of Morin. This second
calendar is, however, a very important starting point for further research in the Vatican Secret Archives.
2. BIBLIOTECA APOSTOLICA VATICANA
Aside from the Vatican Secret Archives and Propaganda, Rome has a number of archives and
libraries that only in comparison with the above two will we refer to as "minor." The documents they
preserve, albeit important, are in fact less numerous and less homogeneous in their origins. The
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vatican Library) the largest of the "minor" repositories, contains a
number of series that by and large correspond directly to bequests received from various sources -popes,
cardinals, Holy See officials in general (Fondo Barberini, Fondo Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Fondo
Borgia, Fondo Chigi, Fondo Ottoboni, Fondo Urbinate, Fondo Vaticano). After Fish/o they are known
to contain documents relating to Avalon in Newfoundland and New France (Fondo Ottoboni), New
France (Urbinate), Louisiana (Vaticano), and the Capuchins in Acadia (Barberini).ll Owing to the
importance of these collections, the Vatican Library is probably the one among the various "minor"
repositories that is likely to contain the most interesting material for the history of North America.
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