INSTITUTES
62
INSTITUTES
CHIVES. — Hitherto very little was kno^NTi of the contents
of this vast treasury ; now its great wealth came to be
widely appreciated — Briefs, Bulls, petitions, depart-
ment records, reports of nuncios and other reports,
diaries, documentary collections, privileges, legal ti-
tles of the most miscellaneous kind, etc. Progress was
at first rather slow, for no systematic use of the ar-
chives could be planned until the workers had famil-
iarized themselves ynth the material at hand. The
over-hasty treatment that, in the beginning, the thir-
teenth century material received, revealed quite clearly
how much there was to learn before the archives could
be used to the best advantage. Gradually, however,
good order was introduced in all kinds of research
work, in which task notable services were rendered
by the historical institutes which from time to time
were established in close relation to the Vatican
Archives. Research work in these archives may be
divided into individual and collective, or general and
special. Individual researches are made by individual
scholars, while collective work is conducted by sev-
eral who have either united for that purpose, or belong
permanently to some association. General research
devotes itself to the larger outUnes of ecclesiastical
history, while special research seeks the solution of
particular problems, more or less far-reaching in im-
portance. Both methods may be combined, ob-
jectively and subjectively; an individual investigator
may work at a general theme, while an association
may take up the study of a restricted or specific
problem, and vice versa. The results of Vatican his-
torical study are to be found in periodicals, essays,
and books, also disseminated in large historical col-
lections devoted to other classes of liistorical ma-
terial, and containing the results of other investiga-
tions, e.g. the "Monumenta Germaniie Historica".
A study of the published material exhibits long series
of original documents, narratives based on copious
documentary material, and occasionally narratives
based on information obtainetl in the archives, but
unaccompanied by the documents or by reference to
them.
IV. Field of Investigation. — While it is but nat- ural that the study of documents should be chiefly done in the Vatican arcliives, most investigators also carry on work in the important collection of printed books known as the Vatican Library. In Oc- tober, 1892, there was opened in connexion with the archives and the Library a consultation library, the "Bibliotheca Leoniana ", in order to facilitate research, historical and Biblical. Governments, academies, libraries, archives, and corporations contributed to it, and it has already reached very large proportions. The archives themselves are so organized that nearly every student of history may discover there some- thing of special importance in his own province. The numerous other archives and manuscript-collections of Rome are also open, as a rule, to the student; indeed, few workers limit them.selves exclusively to Vatican materials. Moreover, studies begim in the Vatican are often .supplemented by scientific excur- sions to other Italian cities, either on the student's homeward journey or during some vacation period; such excursions have at times resulted in surprising discoveries. .\n exhaustive examination of Italian archives and libraries leads occasionally to a larger view of the subject than was originally intended by the investigator, for whom in this way new ((uestions of importance spring up, the definite solution of which becomes highly desirable. Experience, therefore, and the detailed study of the numerous repertories, in- dexes, and inventories of manu.scripts, have made it neceasary to organize permanently the scientific hi.s- torieal researches carried on in the interest of any given country. This means a saving of money and of labour; in this way also more sub.stantial acliieve- ments can be hoped for than from purely individual
research. Consequentlj', institutes for historical re-
search were soon founded in Rome, somewhat on the
plan of the earlier archa-ological societies. While
the opening of such institutes is a nobilc ojjicinm of
any government, private associations have made
serious sticrifices in the same direction and sustained
with success the institutes they have callctl into life.
The state institutes investigate all that pertains to
national relations or intercourse (religion, politics,
economics, science, or art) with the Curia, with Rome,
or, for that matter, with Italy. Many of these insti-
tutes do not attempt to go further, and their field is
certainly comprehensive and in itself admirable.
Others devote themselves to similar researches, but do
not neglect general questions of interest to universal
history, profane or ecclesiastical, or to the history of
medieval culture. Of course, only the larger insti-
tutes, with many workers at their disposal, can satis-
factorily undertake problems of this nature.
V. Historical Institlttes at the Vatican Ar- chives. — England. — At the end of 1876 the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, who was employed by the English Public Record Office to obtain transcripts of documents of liistorical importance in the Vatican archives, re- signed his appointment, and Sir Thomas Hardy, on Cardinal Manning's recommendation, appointed the late Mr. W. H. Bliss as his successor. Though for years Stevenson and Bliss conducted their researches alone, in the last decatle other English investigators, chiefly younger men, had been detailed to Rome by the home Government to co-operate with Bliss and hasten the progress of his work. Bliss died very sud- denly of pneumonia, at an advanced age, 8 March, 1909, and though his place has not yet been filled by the English Government, English investigators con- tinue the work, under direction of the Record Office; they strictly confine themselves, however, to the search for English documents. Scientific use of this material was not called for, and was therefore not undertaken. Short resumes were provided in En- glish of the contents of the documents in question, so as to facilitate the widest possible use to those who had not sufficient mastery of Latin and Italian. So far there have appeared: " Calendars of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland : I. Papal Letters" (London, since 1892 seven volumes to date, the eighth in course of preparation) ; "II. Pe- titions to the Pope" (1 vol.). The reports of these investigations are to be found in the "Annual Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records", the first one, covering 1877, 1878, and 1S79, is found under the year 1880. In addition to the medieval material, numerous extracts and transcripts of a political na- ture were made from sixteenth- and seventeenth- century documents, transmitted to the Record Office and partly used in the " Calendars of State Papers ".
Fiance. — The Ecole Fran^aise de Rome, originally one with that of Athens, employs almost constantly historical investigators at the Grande Archivio of Naples; they devote themselves to the documents of the Angevin d.ynasty. This in.stitute has an organ of its own, the " Melanges d'arch(?ologie et d'histoire ", in whose pages are found not only historical studies properly so called, but also papers on the history of archaeology and of art. The institute has its home in the Palazzo Farnese, where its director lives, and where a rich lilirary is housed. It was founded in 1873, and during the reign of Pius IX, long before the open- ing of the secret archives, inaugurated its great achievement, the cdhing of the papal "Regesta" of the thirteenth century, a gigantic and yet unfinished task. Scholars of international reputation have fig- ured among its directors; its present head is Mon- signor Louis Duchesne, whose monumental work, the "Liber Pontificalis", and numerous other produc- tions, place him in the forefront of Church historians. The "Bibhothfique des Ecoles Fran5aises d'Athfinea
