36 
Vatican Archives 
Arm. LII. A rather miscellaneous collection of Signaturarum, andientiarum, 
commissionum, etc. Numbers 31 and 32 were examined and found 
to contain nothing pertinent. The following belong to the period: 
1. Signaturarum of Julius III. 
16. Signaturarum of Urban VIII. 1640 . 
17. Regestrum andientiarum. 1566 . 
22-22A. Regestrum audientiarum. 1602 . 
23. Regestrum commissionum. 1564 . 
24. Regestrum commissionum. 1564 - 1570 . 
25. Regestrum commissionum. 1667 . 
26. Regestrum commissionum. 1670 - 1671 . 
27. Regestrum commissionum. 1672 . 
28. Regestrum commissionum. 1672 . 
29. Regestrum sive chirografi. Paul V. to Alexander VII. 
30. Regestrum dementis X. 
Arm. LIII. “Volumina ad Datariae et cancellariae stilum pertinentia.” 32 
and 34 were examined and found to contain nothing pertinent. Vol¬ 
umes 29, 50, 55, 58, 60, and 61 were missing. References to Ameri¬ 
can material found in other volumes follow: 
33. f. 65 . Erection of cathedral “ in civitate Imperiali in partibus bar- 
barorum et Infidelium ” (Lima), 
f. 66 . Proemium pro collegio Scholarum ad “ Darengo ”. 
f. 160 . Erection of the church of St. Martha in the Indies. 
The other volumes contain registers or formularia of bulls and briefs of 
various kinds, including those for new benefices, decrees, offices, dispensa¬ 
tions, absolutions, confirmations, coadjutorships, bishoprics, priories, and mon¬ 
asteries, for the Camera, for pensions and reservations, for bulls of the Chan¬ 
cery and of the Dataria, and miscellaneous objects; and material relating to 
other administrative questions, as the practices of the chancery, the taxes of 
apostolic writers, etc. 
Arm . LXIV. Miscellaneous collection relating to various countries, chiefly 
Germany. 30, 31, 32, and 33, relating to France and Spain, the only 
ones that seemed likely to contain American material, were exam¬ 
ined and found to contain nothing pertinent. 
CONSISTORIAL ARCHIVES. 
The consistories are the formal meetings of the Pope and the college of 
cardinals . 48 They are of two kinds: first, the ordinary, so-called secret, con¬ 
sistories, at which cardinals are created, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, co¬ 
adjutors, bishops suffragan, abbots, and nuncios and legates, are formally 
appointed, and the erections, divisions, and other similar changes in dioceses 
are announced; and secondly, the public consistories. The latter are some¬ 
times divided into semi-public consistories, for the creation of cardinals, and 
extraordinary, for canonizations, beatifications, and the reception of royalties 
48 The best account of the consistories is that found in the introduction of Joseph 
Korzeniowski, Excerpta ex Libris Manu Scriptis Archivi Consistorialis Romani, 1409- 
1590 (Cracow, 1890, pp. 151). See also Grimaldi, Les Congregations Romaines, ch. VIII. 
This describes the ceremonial of the consistories. 
