28 
Vatican A rchives 
At the present time the office of the secretary of briefs has been assimilated 
with the secretariate of state. His independent powers are now exercised 
by a “ Substitutus pro Negotiis Ordinariis,” while the business of expediting 
briefs is in the hands of the “ Cancellarius Brevium Apostolicorum.” 32 
The earlier registers and minutes of briefs have largely disappeared, and 
those that remain are widely scattered. Some are in the Archivio, some in 
private libraries in Rome 33 and elsewhere, 34 and some individual briefs are 
registered with the bulls. During the modern period they have been better 
preserved, and are found in two main collections, one of which has been long 
in the Archivio and was inventoried by De Pretis in indice 133 , and the other 
is in the Archivio Brevi. 
The briefs of the first collection were at the time of De Pretis in armadii 
32 , and 38 - 45 . Notes in the margin record the loss of the majority of the 
volumes there enumerated with the surmise that they disappeared at the 
time of the removal to Paris, and with a statement of a regrouping in indice 
133 to a smaller number of armadii. Some volumes marked as lost, when called 
for by the original numbering of De Pretis were, however, promptly brought. 
It would therefore be impossible, without calling for every number, to be 
certain as to the exact present state of the collection. Note is here made: 
first of the number of volumes for the period after 1492 originally in each 
cupboard, and then of those volumes marked as still existing. 35 
Arm, XXXII. Numbers 10 , 23 , and 24 are divers briefs, and 27 , briefs 1171- 
1594. These are all extant. 
Arm. XXXVIII. There were originally 27 volumes of registers of autograph 
briefs for Leo X., and Clement VIII. to Clement XI., of which the 
following are marked as still existing: 
1 . Leo X. 
2 - 4 . Clement VIII. 
5 . Leo XI. 
7 . Paul V. 
9 . Gregory XV. 
10 - 11 , 13 , 16 . Urban VIII. 
17 - 18 , 20 . Innocent X. 
Arm. XXXIX. There were originally 44 volumes, numbers 22 - 65 , of reg¬ 
isters of autograph briefs, from Julius II. to Pius IV., of which the 
following are marked as still existing: 
22 - 39 , 41 - 60 , 64 - 65 . Julius II. to Pius IV. 
Arm. XL. There were originally 53 volumes, numbers 1 - 53 , of minutes of 
briefs, from Leo X. to 1535, of which the following are marked as 
still existing, the numbers through 38 being in arm. XXXVIII: 
3 - 4 . Leo X. 
5 - 11 , 13 - 18 , 20 - 21 , 23 - 32 , 38 . Clement VII. 1523-1531. 
33 Sanctissimi Domini Nostri Pii Divina Providentia Papae X. Constitutio Apos- 
tolica de Romana Curia (Rome, 1908, pp. 69) ; see p. 16. 
23 Arnold, Repertorium Germanicum, pp. xiv-xv. 
34 Romische Quartalschrift, VII. 231-232. 
3j In arm.. 52 , nos. 31 and 32 , of the Archivio Segreto, are orders for the expedition 
of briefs with extreme dates of 1537-1580. They correspond to the endorsed supplica¬ 
tions, etc., which accompany the original minutes found in the volumes of the Archivio 
Brevi. 
