12 
Introduction 
scholars, with at least a doctorate or its equivalent. The Archivio is a lab¬ 
oratory but not a school. 
That, in spite of this activity, pursued now for nearly thirty years, so much 
is unknown about the Archivio and other Roman libraries, is not a reflection 
upon the industry or scholarship of these men, but it reflects to some extent 
upon their capacity for cooperation. Not only has there been no general plan 
of procedure, but for the most part the scholars of each nation have devoted 
themselves to the documents pertaining to the history of their own country, 
with little regard for the plans, or even for the results of others. The primary 
task of making clear the methods of papal administration, in order to under¬ 
stand the relation of the various series of documents, has received too little 
attention, and unfortunately for American historians, most that it has re¬ 
ceived has been for the period antedating the discovery of America. Finally, 
the publications resulting from these studies are scattered through thousands 
of volumes and find their way into the most unexpected places. Not all the 
libraries in Rome afford copies of all such articles or editions. All the regular 
series of the various Roman institutions, and many others, were examined, 
and the articles of use to the American historian are cited later, but it would 
be rash to claim to have exhausted the number. 
In addition to publications, there are a number of important collections of 
transcripts which have been made from Italian and particularly from Roman 
libraries. In the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, in the Moreau collection, 
there are many copies made in the eighteenth century. These are excellent 
in character, but seemed, on a hasty examination, not likely to contain Ameri¬ 
can material. The Roman Transcripts of the Public Record Office at London 
were more carefuly examined, and are much more extensive. They are not 
well arranged, and the references they give are far from easy to interpret. 
Such of these as are of interest to students of American history will be cited 
in connection with the collections from which they have been taken. The 
Massachusetts Historical Society possesses an interesting collection of tran¬ 
scripts made by the late Mr. W. H. Bliss of the English Public Record Office, 
with here and there an original, or an old copy of a lost or inaccessible docu¬ 
ment. This collection was evidently made with reference to Great Britain, 
and the American material must be very occasional indeed. Its character is 
much that of the collection in London, and the contents of the two doubtless 
duplicate each other. 84 
Guides. Of the many descriptive books and articles dealing with material 
on a broad scale, the best for the pontifical archives as a whole, is that of 
Ricardo de Hinojosa, Los Despachos de la Diplomacia Pontidcia en Espaha, 
Memoria de una Mision odcial en el Archivo Secreto de la Santa Sede, pub¬ 
lished at Madrid in 1896. 35 In his introduction he briefly sketches the contents 
of the various repositories of material, and his work, although in some cases 
superseded, remains the most comprehensive. Much more detailed is Les 
Archives Pontificates et IHistoire Moderne de la France, of Georges Bourgin, 
M This collection consists of eighteen volumes, one bundle, and one note-book. There 
arc copies from all the well-known Roman collections, some made from the Propaganda 
during its short period of publicity, and some from the Archivio Doria-Pamphili. 
83 This was the result of a year’s mission to Italy and particularly to Rome. In addi¬ 
tion to this general introduction, he gives a careful study of diplomatic relations for 
the sixteenth century. This work is entitled vol. I., and the failure of a second to 
appear has caused universal regret, as, considering the time at the author’s disposal, it 
is probably the best piece of work yet done on the modern period. 
