Vatican Apostolic Archive

The Archive's rooms are along the braccio di Pio IV of the Apostolic Palace, adjacent to the Salone Sistino, on the Piano Nobile. Research is free of charge and open to qualified scholars holding a laurea magistrale or equivalent, and for clergy a licentiate or doctorate; consultation is currently permitted for documents up to and including the pontificate of Pius XII, October 1958. It opens to scholars Monday and Tuesday 08.00 to 16.15 and Wednesday to Friday 08.00 to 12.45, with admission cards issued by the Segreteria Accettazioni Monday and Tuesday 08.00 to 12.00 and Wednesday to Friday 08.00 to 10.30. The study-room rules are strict: no bags, briefcases or laptop cases, no ballpoint or fountain pens or markers, no cameras, portable scanners or wearable technology with lenses or recording sensors, including smart glasses and digital watches, no food or drink, phones on silent and used only outdoors in the courtyard, sober dress including in summer, and silence in the study rooms.

Paul V created the Novum Archivum in the Apostolic Palace in 1611, concentrating registers from the Vatican Library, the Camera Apostolica and the archive of Castel Sant'Angelo in the Sala Paolina; on 31 January 1612 he appointed Baldassarre Ansidei custodian, and the Archive's history formally begins there. The material moved to the three Piano Nobile rooms in 1613 and 1614. Urban VIII established its autonomy from the Library on 23 July 1630. The name Archivio Segreto Vaticano appears in 1646, in a general index by the prefect Costanzo Centofiorini. Alexander VII assigned the floor above to the Secretariat of State archive in 1660. In 1798 the archive of Castel Sant'Angelo was moved in. Napoleon confiscated the papal archives in 1810, about 3,239 crates leaving Rome, with heavy losses on the return. Leo XIII opened the Archive to scholars of every country and religion in 1881. The Bunker depositories beneath the Cortile della Pigna were built on two floors, with a capacity of 31,000 cubic metres and 43 linear kilometres of shelving. On 22 October 2019, by the motu proprio L'esperienza storica, Francis replaced the title Archivio Segreto Vaticano with the older name Archivio Apostolico Vaticano. The Archive holds over 600 fondi, grouped as curial offices, over 75 pontifical diplomatic representations from the early sixteenth to the twentieth century, family and personal archives including Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Borghese, Della Valle-Del Bufalo, Patrizi-Montoro, Ruspoli-Marescotti and Rospigliosi, with the Fondo Albani, Carpegna and Pio, councils and synods including the complete archives of Vatican I and Vatican II and a large part of Trent, religious orders and archconfraternities, and miscellaneous collections.

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