VATICAN ARCHIVES: MINOR COLLECTIONS. 
ARCHIVES OF AVIGNON. 
The archives which accumulated during the residence of the Popes at 
Avignon, were to a large extent left there when Saint Catharine led the papal 
court back to Rome. They suffered much from neglect, and somewhat from 
intentional destruction. What remained was brought to Rome, partly by 
order of Paul V., the founder of the Archivio Segreto, and partly in 1783. 1 
All the archives brought from Avignon naturally antedate the discovery of 
America, but in some cases later volumes have been added to series composed 
for the most part of Avignon volumes, and it is useful to be aware of the 
designation. These merged series consist of Camera accounts and are men¬ 
tioned under the heading Camera, under the Archivio Segreto. Indice 145 
serves as an inventory of them, and there is a brief description in Wirz’s Bullen 
und Breven, p. xxxi. The Avignon “ registers ” constitute an entirely in¬ 
dependent series, quite too early to contain items interesting for American 
history. 
AVVISI. 
This separate collection of news-letters comprises 124 volumes. It is in¬ 
ventoried in indice 194 , which simply gives the dates covered by the respective 
volumes. There are three series. The first consists of numbers 1 - 76 , of which 
the first five cover the years 1605-1607, 1611-1613, 1618, 1623-1627; and 
volumes 6-76 cover those from 1639 t° I 7 ° 9 - The second consists of volumes 
77 - 119 , and cover the years 1618-1689, except 1633 and 1634. Volumes 120 - 
124 contain leaves scattered through from 1600 to 1700. The general char¬ 
acter of the material is similar to that described in connection with the nunzia- 
tura, page 55, and the Urbinate collection, page 112. Three volumes were 
examined, of which the description follows: 
1 . The material in this volume is neither paged nor arranged chronologic¬ 
ally. A letter of June 24, 1605, from Antwerp, states that the Dutch were 
seeking a port in Africa from which to impede the navigation of New Spain. 
3 . This better-ordered volume contains much on the question of peace be¬ 
tween the Dutch and the Spaniards in 1607, and the subsidiary questions of 
navigation in both Indies. A letter of Nov. 23, 1607, notes the discovery of 
mines by the English in an island of which the name was illegible. 
79 . Chronologically arranged material for 1630. There is much on the 
Dutch, English, and Spaniards in the West Indies, the fleet of New Spain, 
and the Dutch West India Company. 
BANDI. 
The third series of this collection is inventoried in indice 194 under the 
heading. “ Serie 3 a delle Bolle e dei Bandi collocati nella Camera, che mette 
alia Biblioteca di Consoltazione It consists of 80 volumes, 1 - 4 , 1425-1657, 
and the remainder running regularly from that date to 1854. Series one and 
two are inventoried in the Miscellanea of De Pretis, in armadii IV. and V. 
It seems hardly possible that any American material exists in the collection, 
and it was not examined. 
1 Bourgin, Archives Pontihcales, p. 20; Wirz, Bullen und Breven, pp. xiii and xxxi. 
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