In searching "Google" for Vatican Secret Archives I thought I had discovered a useful podcast but found to my dismay that there is a musical group called Vatican Secret Archives!!!

Thanks Helen for telling me about some interesting websites that give a lot of information. A very useful site is the Catholic Encylcopaedia.

Through this site have discovered that the existence of the Vatican secret archives really began with Innocent III (1198) and that it possesses documents covering seven centuries. There are approximately 60,000 volumes, cassettes and bundles full of documents. Within each cassette and bundle there are many other documents, therefore it is impossible to quantify the exact number of items contained in the secret archives. The archives can be divided into eight chief groups of which one bears the name the Archivio Segreto (Secret Archives). The whole of the Secret Archives is named after this oldest section.