230 
Naples 
give a general idea of their contents. 10 The collection is much larger than that 
in any depository of other national archives in Italy, and forms, in fact, one 
of the largest masses of manuscript material in the world. In addition to the 
archives of the kingdom of Naples, which are well preserved, are those of 
many suppressed monasteries and many documents not properly archives of 
Naples or Neapolitan institutions. These are stored and indexed separately 
and their accessibility varies greatly. On the whole not as much difficulty was 
encountered as I had been led to expect. 
ARCHIVIO FARNESIANO. 11 
The Farnese archives were collected at Parma from many places. A large 
portion was brought from Brussels by Margaret of Austria, and others from 
Rome. In 1734 the greater portion of this collection was removed to Naples, 13 
where since 1868 it has occupied a room to itself in the Archivio di Stato. The 
manuscripts on paper, which are the only ones of possible interest to the sub¬ 
ject, are inventoried in indice 63 , which has been corrected to date. In addi¬ 
tion to certain volumes separately cited and relating mostly to local Neapolitan 
affairs, 13 the collection consists of a main body of 1842 fasci or bundles and 
9 additional fasci. The interests of the Farnese family were widely extended 
throughout Europe during the second and third quarters of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. Alexander Farnese was pope as Paul III. from 1534 to 1550. In 1545 
the duchy of Parma was acquired by Pier Luigi Farnese, whose son married 
Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Charles V. and for many years vice¬ 
reine of the Low Countries. These wide-spread connections are reflected in 
the archives, which also illustrate the diminished range of family influence 
after the death of Duke Alexander in 1592.. 
The best ordered part of the archives consists of a portion of the papers 
having relation to Rome, which have been separated and classed. 14 These are 
arranged in nine fasci, within which the papers of a single year are found in 
separate folders. Of these I., the papers of Pier Luigi, 1530-1547; and of 
II., which contains those of Pasino dei Giusti, 1551-1560, the years 1551, 
1 558- 1 560, were examined without result. The only other fasce which might 
contain American material is VI., news-letters, 1526-1593. 
In the main archive the fasci are roughly divided into groups by the coun¬ 
tries to which they chiefly refer, but this classification can not be wholly relied 
upon. Each fasce is numbered, and some very brief description of its con¬ 
tents is given, with the extreme dates covered. These notes are often cor¬ 
rected and enlarged in other hands, not as a result of a re-examination of the 
whole, but as scholars have from time to time contributed something in passing. 
10 B. Capasso, L’Archivio di Stato in Napoli hno a tutto il 1898. 
11 In addition to the references above, Nicola Barone, Notizie risguardanti YArchivio 
Farnesiano ora conservato nelY Archivio di Stato in Napoli (Naples, 1898, pp. iv, 24). 
12 Bonaini, Relazione sugli Archivi delle Provinzie dell’Emilia (Florence, 1861), pp. 
159 seq. 
13 “ Elenco delle Rubriche diverse preesistenti in Archivio (Farnesiano) e non ripor- 
tate neH’ultimo Inventario di Consegna delle Carte Farnesiane.” Dr. Giulio Coggiola, 
“ Proposta di Reintegrazione nella Sede Naturale dei Fondi Farnesiani, degli Archivi 
di Napoli e di Parma”, in Rivista delle Biblioteche e degli Archivi, XIV. 78 (Prato, 
1903, PP- ix) ; Ronchini, “Relazione sull’Archivio di Parma”, in Archivio Storico 
Italiano, V. 182-234 (1867). 
14 “ Nell’ordinamento delle scritture farnesiane rubrica col titolo Roma, si com- 
mincirono a riunire i carteggi di Pier Luigi Farnese e di coloro che tennero corrispon- 
denza col Card. Alessandro, si constituirono a nuovi fascie.” 
