The Vatican Apostolic Archive (; ), formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archive (; ), is the central repository in the

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

of all acts promulgated by the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

. The

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

, as the sovereign of Vatican City, owns the material held in the archive until his death or resignation, with ownership passing to his successor. The archive also contains state papers, correspondence, account books, and many other documents that the church has accumulated over the centuries. Pope Paul V separated the Secret Archive from the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

, where scholars had some very limited access, and the archive remained closed altogether to outsiders until the late 19th century, when

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

opened the archive to researchers, more than a thousand of whom now examine some of its documents each year.

“Secret” name

The use of the word ''secret'' in the former title, "Vatican Secret Archive", does not denote the modern meaning of confidentiality. A fuller and perhaps better translation of the archive's former

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name may be the "private Vatican Apostolic archive", indicating that its holdings are the pope's personal property, not those of any particular department of the

Roman Curia The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...

or the

. The word ''secret'' continues to be used in this older, original sense in the English language, in phrases such as ''secret servants'', ''secret cupbearer'', or ''secretary'', much like an esteemed position of honour and regard comparable to a VIP. One study in 1969 stated that use of the term ''secret'' was merited, as the archives' cataloguing system was so inadequate that it remained "an extensive buried city, a Herculaneum inundated by the lava of time ... secret as an archeological dig is secret". Despite the change in name, parts of the archive do remain classified in the modern sense of the word ''secret''; most of these classified materials, which are actively denied to outsiders, relate to contemporary personalities and activities, including everything dated after 1958, as well as the private records of church figures after 1922. On 28 October 2019,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

issued an Apostolic Letter dated 22 October, renaming the archives from the Vatican Secret Archive to the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

History

The early Church

In the 1st century of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, the Church had already acquired, and begun to assemble, a sizable collection of records. Known alternately as the Holy Scrinium or the Chartarium, these records normally travelled with the current pope. In later centuries, as the Church amassed power, popes would visit heads of state to negotiate treaties or make political appearances around Europe. Popes would also have multiple places of residency. When they travelled for diplomatic or other purposes, they would take their archives with them, since they needed it for administrative work. This resulted in some loss of items. Initially, the archival materials of the Church were stored at the

Lateran Palace The Apostolic Palace of the Lateran (; ), informally the Lateran Palace (), is an ancient palace of the Roman Empire and later the main pope, papal residence in Rome. Located on Saint John's Square in Lateran on the Caelian Hill, the palace is ...

, then the official papal residence.

Uprisings, revolts, and the Western Schism (10851415)

By the

11th century The 11th century is the period from 1001 (represented by the Roman numerals MI) through 1100 (MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early ...

, the archives of the church were devolved to at least three separate sites: the Lateran, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Palatine palace. When the Popes moved to

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

, the process of transporting their archives took twenty years, all told. The various places where the archives were kept along the way were sacked by the Ghibellines three separate times, in 1314, 1319, and 1320.

Antipope An antipope () is a person who claims to be Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church in opposition to the officially elected pope. Between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by factions within the Church its ...

s also had their own archives. The

Western Schism The Western Schism, also known as the Papal Schism, the Great Occidental Schism, the Schism of 1378, or the Great Schism (), was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 20 September 1378 to 11 November 1417, in which bishops residing ...

resulted in two sets of papal archives being developed at once; this rose to three during the era of Pisan antipope

John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

. The disparate archives of the rival papal claimants were not fully reunited in the Vatican's archives until 1784. During the 1404 sack of the Vatican, papal registers and historical documents were thrown into the streets, and Pope Innocent VII fled the city. His successor,

Pope Gregory XII Pope Gregory XII (; ; – 18 October 1417), born Angelo Corraro, Corario," or Correr, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 November 1406 to 4 July 1415. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was opposed by the Avignon claimant Benedi ...

, supposedly sold off a large number of archival materials in 1406, including some of the papal registers.

Founding the archive

In 1612, Pope Paul V ordered all Church records assembled in one place.

Seizure by the French government and restoration

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

conquered the states on the Italian peninsula in the 1790s, he demanded works of art and manuscripts as tribute. His armistice with Holy See on 23 June 1796 stipulated that "the Pope shall deliver to the French Republic one hundred pictures, busts, vases or statues ... and five hundred manuscripts", all chosen by French agents. The 1798 Treaty of Tolentino made even greater demands, and the works sent to Paris included the , the oldest extant manuscript of the Bible in Greek. By the time Napoleon became emperor in 1804, he envisaged a central archive in Paris of the records and treasures of Europe. In 1809 he ordered the entire Vatican Archive transferred to Paris, and by 1813 more than 3,000 crates had been shipped, with only modest losses. The Vatican archives were stored in the complex of the National Archives of France, on the grounds of the Hôtel de Soubise. In April 1814, after Coalition troops entered Paris, the new French government ordered the archive returned, but provided inadequate financing. Vatican officials raised funds by selling some volumes as well as bundling documents for sale by weight. Inadequate funding led to losses en route, with one scholar of the period estimating that "about one-fourth to one-third of the archival materials that went to Paris never returned to the Vatican."

Access to scholars

19th-century developments

In 1855, Augustin Theiner, prefect of the Archive, began to publish multi-volume collections of documents from the archive. His predecessor Marino Marini had produced an account of Galileo's trials that failed to satisfy scholars who saw it as an apology for the Inquisition. Beginning in 1867, Theiner and his successor granted individual scholars access to the manuscripts relating to the trial of

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

, leading to a protracted dispute about their authenticity. Scholarly access was briefly interrupted following the dissolution of the Papal States in 1870, when archive officials restricted access to assert their control against competing claims by the victorious Italian state. In 1879,

appointed as archivist Cardinal Josef Hergenröther, who immediately wrote a memo recommending that historians be allowed access to the archive. Access had remained limited out of concern that

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

researchers might use their access to slander or embarrass the Church. Hergenröther's approach led to Pope Leo ordering a reading room constructed for researchers; it opened on 1 January 1881. When the German Protestant historian Theodor von Sickel, in April 1883, published the results of his research in the archive, which defended the Church against charges of forgery, Pope Leo was further persuaded. In August 1883 he wrote to the three cardinals who shared responsibility for the archives and praised the potential of historical research to clarify the role of the papacy in European culture and Italian politics. He announced that the archives would be open to research that was impartial and critical. In an address to the Görres Society in February 1884, Pope Leo said: "Go to the sources. That is why I have opened the archives to you. We are not afraid of people publishing documents out of them."

Access in the modern era

In 1979, historian Carlo Ginzburg sent a letter to the newly elected

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

, asking that the archives of the Holy Office (the

Roman Inquisition The Roman Inquisition, formally , was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according ...

) be opened.

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

said that letter was instrumental in the Vatican's decision to open those archives. Though the archive has developed policies that restrict access to material by pontificate, with access granted no earlier than 75 years after the close of a pope's reign, popes have granted exceptions. For example, Pope Paul VI made the records of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

available not long after it ended. In 2002,

allowed scholars access to documents from the historical archives of the Secretariat of State (''Second Section'') pertaining to the Holy See's relations with Germany during the pontificate of

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

(1922–1939) in order "to put an end to unjust and thoughtless speculation" about the Church's relationship with the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. Following the success of the controversial 2008 film '' Angels & Demons'', adapted from the

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...

novel of the same name, which depicts a visit to the Archives, the Vatican opened the Archives to a select group of journalists in 2010 to dispute the film's treatment. In 2018,

ordered the Vatican Archive to open documents which would assist in a "thorough study" concerning former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was accused of sexually molesting seminarians and having affairs with young priests.

Archives of Pope Pius XII (2020)

announced on 4 March 2019 that materials relating to

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

would be opened on 2 March 2020, stating that Pius' legacy had been "debated and even criticized (one might say with some prejudice or exaggeration)", that "The Church is not afraid of history", and that he anticipated "appropriate criticism". In addition to assessing Pius' response to the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, the archives of the papacy of Pope Pius XII should point to a much broader shift in global Christianity from Europe to the global South. Since 2006, members of the archives department have been organising the estimated 16 million pages of documents in order to prepare them for viewing by researchers.

Holdings

The Vatican Apostolic Archive has been estimated to contain of shelving, with 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone. Complete archives of letters written by the popes, known as the papal registers, are available beginning with the papacy of

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216. Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...

(r. 1198–1216). A few registers of earlier popes also survive, including Pope John VIII (r. 872–882) and

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great ...

(r. 1073–1085). Notable documents include

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

's request for a marriage annulment, a handwritten transcript of the trial of

for heresy, and letters from

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

complaining he had not been paid for work on the Sistine Chapel. To mark the 400th anniversary of the Vatican Archives, 100 documents dating from the 8th to the 20th century were put on display from February to September 2012 in the "Lux in arcana – The Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself" exhibition held at the

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums () are a group of art and archaeology, archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing ...

in Rome. They included the 1521

papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

of excommunication of

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

and a letter from

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

, written while awaiting her execution. The archive also supports its own photographic and conservation studios.

Access policy

The entrance to the Archive, adjacent to the

, is through the Porta di Santa Anna in via di Porta Angelica (

Rione A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

of Borgo). In 1980, following modern renovations, new underground storage space was added. * Distinguished and qualified scholars from institutions of higher education pursuing scientific research with an adequate knowledge of archival research may apply for an entry card. * Select scholars need an introductory letter from either a recognized institute of research or a suitably qualified person in their field of historical research. * Applicants need to provide their personal data (name, address, etc.), as well as the purpose of their research. * Only paper, pencil and computer laptops are permitted. No ink, pens, or any digital camera photography are allowed inside. * Only five requested articles can be taken at a time, and only sixty academicians per day are allowed inside. With limited exceptions, materials dated after 1939 were unavailable to researchers until 2 March 2020, when material from the tenure of

(1939—1958) was opened for public access. An entire section of the distinguished archives relating to the personal affairs of Cardinalship from 1922 onwards cannot be accessed.

Digitization project

Early in the 21st century, the Vatican Apostolic Archives began an in-house digitization project, to attempt to both make the documents more available to researchers and to help to preserve aging physical documents. , the archive had 180 terabytes of digital storage capacity, and had digitized over seven million images.

In 2017, a project based in Roma Tre University called began using artificial intelligence and

optical character recognition Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronics, electronic or machine, mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo ...

to attempt to transcribe more documents from the archives. While character-recognition software is adept at reading typed text, the cramped and many-serifed style of medieval handwriting makes distinguishing individual characters difficult for the software. Many individual letters of the alphabet are often confused by human readers of medieval handwriting, let alone a computer program. The team behind tried to solve this problem by developing a machine-learning software that could parse this handwriting. Their program eventually achieved 96% accuracy in parsing this type of text.

Other archives of the Holy See

There are other Holy See archives in Rome, since each department of the

has its own archives. The word "secret" in its modern sense can be applied to some of the material kept by the

Apostolic Penitentiary The Apostolic Penitentiary (), formerly called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is a dicastery led by the Major Penitentiary of the Roman Curia and is one of the three ordinary tribunals of the Holy See, Apostolic See. The Ap ...

, when it concerns matters of the internal forum; but registers of the rescripts that it issued up to 1564 have been deposited in the Vatican Apostolic Archives and are open for consultation by qualified scholars. Half of these have already been put in digital form for easier consultation. The confidentiality of the material means that, in spite of the centuries that have passed since 1564, special rules apply to its publication.

Notes

References

Citations

Additional sources

* *

External links

*
The Vatican Palace, as a Scientific Institute
(in the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'') * {{Authority control 1612 establishments in the Papal States Archives in Vatican City Libraries in Vatican City

Pontifical organizations Pope Leo XIII Vatican Library Secrecy