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The Roman Propaganda Fide Archives: An Overflow and Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John B. Mcgloin
John B. Mcgloin
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco
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Extract

In 1908–09 Professor Carl Russell Fish of the University of Wisconsin was commisioned as a Research Associate by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C., and sent abroad to visit and assess the materials for American history to be found in the various archives of Italy. Out of his labors, done with the precision of a trained historian, came a volume which has long been a standard tool for students and researchers in this field: Fish's Guide to the Materials for American History in Roman and Other Italian Archives, published in 1911 by the Carnegie Institution. Pages 119–95 are devoted to an analysis of those archives of the Catholic Church which are commonly called the Archives of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide in Rome. Fish's analysis is preceded by a brief historical account of this important arm in the ordinary government of the Catholic Church from 1622 (the date of its establishment) until 1911.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 84 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1964

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References

1. Fish, op. cit., pp. 121–122.

2. XXX, 1 (Mar. 1961), pp. 103–05.

3. Since Fish's treatment relatively little of value has been written on the Propaganda Archives. Of paramount importance, then, is the article, from which the present writer has liberally borrowed, by the present Archivist of Propaganda—Rev. Nicola Kowalsky, O. M. I. It is entitled [Inventario del' Archivo storico della S. Congregazione ‘de Propaganda Fide’” and was first published in the Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft/Nouvelle Revue de Science Missionaire, XVII (1961), pp. 9–23, 109–117, 191–200Google Scholar. Reprints are available from Father Kowaisky at Propaganda for lire 400. This is an indispensable tool for all who propose to work in these archives. Several other references, of less value, will be found listed by Kowalsky.

4. The present writer inquired in his 1963 Roman visit of the Vatican Archivist— more as a matter of curiosity than of need—if the Pius IX papers were now ready for inspection. His reply was a pleasant smile and an answer in the negative—with no indication that the Roman authorities are in any special hurry concerning the matter!

5. As already indicated in the body of this paper, it would be presumptuous in the extreme to indicate here the future course of Propaganda authorities with regard to the further use of their materials by, e.g., interested American scholars. He can only say, as a matter of record, that his two visits there and his many days of work in the riches of these Archives, found him the recipient of many acts of courtesy on the part of Father Kowalsky and his helpers. American scholars will be happy to learn, then, that the present spirit is one of cooperation within limits—by which I mean that while it is evident that Propaganda authorities are not pleading for visitors, they seem quite conscious of their opportunity to encourage scholarship by allowing competent persons, properly recommended, to use their Archives.