The San Giovanni in Laterano square with the Palace and the Basilica. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Palace

Prior to the XIII century, there was a lot of transfer of documents between different papal palaces as the official home of the Roman Catholic Church, The Vatican City, was not established until about 1377 by Pope Gregory XI (after Papacy returned from Avignon).

The Lateran Palace was the official residence of the Popes for more than one thousand years prior to the Papacy being moved to Avignon in 1309. Thus many private and important documents related to the Church were kept here. The original lateran palace was subsequently destroyed by fire during the time the Popes were at Avignon.

Castel S. Angelo

Image from: www.planetware.com/picture/rome-castel-santan...

From about the XV century, the most sensitive documents pertaining to the interests of the Holy See were housed at Castel S. Angelo. This archive was established by Pope Sixtus IV. These archives remained here until they were transferred to the Vatican Secret Library in 1798 for safety reasons.

An interesting site to visit which has lots of information about the history of the Catholic Church is The Catholic Encyclopaedia.

The label "Secret Archives"

A picture of Paul V (1605-1621), founder of the Vatican SecretArchives, kept in the rooms of the «piano nobile» of the Archives building. Image taken from http://asv.vatican.va/en/arch/secret.htm

The title "Secret Archives" really means the "private" archives of the Pope. The term "secret" or "secreta" was used in everyday life to identify people or institutions close to the ruling body, in this case the ruling body being the Pope (from The title, "Vatican secret Archives", http://asv.vatican.va/en/arch/secret.htm, viewed September 2009). Therefore the term "Secret" is not to refer to the archives being something that was kept hidden, rather they were the Pope's personal or private collection of documents related to the running of the church.

That said, the archives only became available for scholars and historians to study from the time of Pope Leo XIII's reign. They are still regarded as being "private" and permission is required to study the documents.

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.

First Post

Hi, this is my first post. I have chosen to research the Vatican Library Secret Archives. Having read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, anything with the label "Secret" connected with the Catholic Church leaves me wanting to know more. My search began with checking Swinburne Library catalogue where I found two books with a bit of the history of the Vatican Library. The greatest source of information has been from the Vatican Library website which has lots of information about the Secret Archives.

Here is what I have discovered to date.

Location of Secret Archives

The Vatican Secret Archives are located in the Bibliotheca Vaticana (Vatican Library) which was founded in 1405 by Pope Nicholas V. Prior to this Popes and Roman Catholic Clergy had collected books and manuscripts for centuries but the majority failed to survive medieval upheavals and the move of the Roman Catholic Church to Avignon in 1309. Today the Bibliotheca Vaticana is known as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. (Source: Lerner, F A 1998, The story of libraries: from the invention of writing to the computer age, New York, NY, Continuum Publishing Company.)

The modern Secret Archives collection was established about 1610 by Paul V Borghese, although the roots of the collection dates back to the origins of the Roman Catholic Church. Popes carefully preserved manuscripts concerning the exercise of their activities and these were kept in the scrinium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae that followed the popes in their usual residences. (Source: Vatican Library Website)