VATICAN LIBRARY. 
BARBERINI ARCHIVES. 
This collection is not yet put in order, and while special, known documents 
may be used, it is impossible to make an exhaustive examination of the whole. 
BARBERINI LIBRARY. 
The Barberini Library of manuscripts was, before its recent purchase by 
the Vatican, the most important private collection in Rome. For the first 
three-quarters of the seventeenth century this family occupied a position of 
almost unique importance. Its leading member was Pope, as Urban VIII., 
from 1623 to 1644, and Cardinal Francesco Barberini remained for many 
years after that one of the leading men in the Curia. Imbued with orderly 
habits, scholarly tastes, and enormous activity, they made collections equalling 
their opportunities. It is still true that at present, and until the archives of 
the congregations be generally opened to investigation, the history of the 
papacy, at least for the reign of Urban VIII., can be better studied here, than 
in the papal archives; and there are in addition great masses of scholarly cor¬ 
respondence, extending all over Europe, and miscellaneous material of the 
utmost variety and extent. 
This collection came to the Vatican so well ordered that its independence 
is, and probably will be, preserved. There is an inventory, which was used 
exclusively, and which is admirable. It is in 36 volumes, listing and describing 
12000 numbers. As the first two volumes treat the Greek manuscripts which 
have a separate numeration, and among the others there is a certain amount 
of classification, it seemed necessary to use only volumes 3 - 30 , and 32 . The 
“ Index Codicum MSS. Latinorum et Occidentalium ” is in 42 volumes, with 
two appendixes. The items are on separate slips, fastened in extension covers. 
There is also a “ Catalogo generale dei Carteggi Diplomatici in ordine alfa- 
betico ”, in 15 volumes. These are all due to the labor of Alessandro Pieralisi, 
for many years librarian. Gachard, in his Archives Vaticanes, pp. 43-46, sum¬ 
marizes the nuntiature material. The following numbers were examined but 
no pertinent material found in them: 846 , 1158 , 1353 - 1357 , 1498 , 1502 , 1507 , 
1513 , 1514 , 1522 , 1538 , 1596 , 1835 , 1947 , 2064 , 2177 , 2203 , 2384 , 2558 , 2559 , 
2649 , 2687 , 2693 , 2735 , 2736 , 2832 , 2839 , 2868 , 3013 , 3092 , 3166 , 3185 , 3411 , 
3527 , 3802 , 4394 , 4431 , 4574 , 5223 , 5227 , 5243 , 5245 , 5253 , 5256 , 5261 , 5269 , 
5273 , 5274 , 5275 , 5332 , 5333 , 5339 , 5349 , 5366 , 5375 , 5391 , 5418 , 5427 , 5441 , 
5477 , 5537 , 5562 , 5585 , 5607 , 5649 , 5682 , 5721 , 5748 , 5757 , 5815 , 5868 , 5988 , 
6442 , 6483 , 6541 , 7963 , 8222 , 8223 , 8522 , 8528 , 8529 , 8530 , 8532 , 8584 , 8585 , 
8601 , 8618 , 8638 , 8645 , 8655 , 8822 , 8823 . References to material found re¬ 
lating to the subject, follow: 
241 . (“ Latin ”, as are all the numbers cited.) “ Libellus de medicinalibus In- 
dorum herbis, quern quidam Indus Collegii Sanctae Crucis Medicus 
composuit, nullius rationibus doctus, sed solis experimentis edoctus. 
Anno Domini Servatoris, 1552.” 63 ff. 
324 . fif. 131-133. “ De Insula nova mense Julio anno 1678 in Oceano At- 
lantico enata ad oram occidentem insulae Flandriae S. Michaelis.” 
101 
