Archivio Segreto 
43 
in addition to the series which had long been registered by the secretaries, 
the bulls per viam secretam, of consistorial provisions, and de curia are to 
be found here; apparently, in fact, all except those in the Lateran registers. 
The registers found in this Archivio, therefore, continue the series which 
for the previous period are collected in the Regesta Vaticana. 63 
Briefs. It was not possible to determine the relation of the briefs of this 
collection and those inventoried by De Pretis as forming part of the Archivio 
of his day. The two series are alike in character, and it would seem that 
they must supplement each other, but the basis for the selection of the portion 
first sent to the Archivio is not plain. 
The volumes of this series contain from 700 to 800 folios. The material 
does not consist of registered briefs, but of the minutes from which the briefs 
were prepared. With the brief is also the supplication which called for it, 
in case it was issued on petition. These supplications are originals, and are 
not all prepared by procurators. On the supplication is endorsed its history. 
Often note is made of reference to a congregation, whose decision is endorsed 
and validated by the seal of the cardinal prefect. Sometimes instead of a 
supplication is a note from a congregation requesting the expedition of a 
brief. All supplications are finally signed: “ Ill mus annuit ”, or with some 
qualification, as, “ juxta decreta ”, or “ cu’ solitis restriction”. With the 
minute and the supplication are occasionally other documents, as doctors’ 
certificates in the case of petitions to eat meat on fast days. Occasionally, 
also, original briefs are bound in. The briefs within the month are not chrono¬ 
logically arranged, being rather grouped by subjects. Where several briefs 
are issued in identical terms, as in the case of granting a dispensation with 
regard to age to a class of novices, only one minute is in full, the others noting 
merely the individuals’ names. The American material is not quite so varied 
as the general contents of the collection, because trivial requests were less 
apt to be sent such a distance, but they are in the total numerous. In the 
volumes examined the only one noted in any way within our field was one 
of Clement XI., Feb. 17, 1701, found in the volume for March, folios 154- 
155, for the future conservation of books in the library of the Franciscans in 
the city of Guadalaxara. 
CASTELLO. 
The collection from the Castello Sant’ Angelo was, in a way, the predecessor 
of the Archivio Vaticano. Founded by Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) , w its purpose 
was to bring the most valuable papers of the papacy together for safe keeping 
in its strongest fortress. Preserved there under special precaution, not so 
much for secrecy as for safety, it remained an independent and growing de¬ 
pository until the entrance of the French troops in 1797, when the sanctity 
of the Vatican seemed a more secure protection than the walls of the Castle. 
As a result of their removal, they were made, in 1798, to all intents and pur¬ 
poses, a part of the Vatican archives. 65 
The contents are most varied, consisting rather of individually important 
documents than of series. They include deeds of donation to the papacy, 
treaties, autograph letters of royal and other persons of importance, original 
03 Cardinal G. Simeoni, and Raphael de Martinis, Juris Pont, de Prop. Fide (Rome, 
1888 seq., 7 vols.), passim. Also Piux X., Constitute, etc.., sup. cit., p. 18. 
6 ‘ P. Kehr, Papsturkunden in Rom, pp. 115-120. 
05 Bourgin, Archives Pontificates, pp. 79-80. Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. xxx. 
