Customer Reviews

The Secret Archives of the Vatican

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I must confess that at the time I am writing this I am only halfway through the book. If my opinion drastically changes by the end of the book, then I will update this review, however, I doubt it will.

When I initially purchased this book it was on clearance for five dollars at Barnes & Noble, and having a passing interest in religious history I thought it was worth it. While I seriously believe it was well worth my money, especially a hardcover at that price. This book is not at all what I had initially expected. I was expecting a book on what was IN the archives of the Vatican, but rather this is a book about the history of the archives itself. It's a fairly interesting book overall because you get to see where the archives developed and then how they were managed during the middle ages. The parts I found most interesting were the inception of the archives before Christianity was a legal religion in Rome and the archives during the Great Schism when there were two Pope's and thus, two archives.

Unfortunately for me, my historical knowledge of specific events and peoples during these time frames is somewhat limited. My historical research focuses more on Egypt, Persia, Israel, and Sumer. I have a decent general working knowledge of the time frames in question, but not nearly the depth the author seems to assume her readers will have. That is probably the single failing of this book from a readers perspective, the author appears to assume you know quite a bit about the people involved and what was happening in the world during that time-frame. This makes the book unecessarily difficult to read, which is why I chose to review it now while I have the free time. This is the kind of book that I read a few chapters, then stop and read a few books, then go back to this one for a few more chapters.

Don't misunderstand me, this book is very well researched for what it is. Packing in this much history in about 300 pages must've been quite a challenge. While her approach was somewhat unique and it does include quotes from documents she has viewed in the archives to engage the reader a bit more, she doesn't really explain the documents as much as I would like, or the history of the people. On that level though you're talking about writing volumes for a single history, and that simply can't be the case for this book.

I am left wanting more depth on the archival history and more about what is in the actual archives. This book is merely okay for what it is from my perspective. It didn't really enthrall me, nor did I hate it by any means. I am merely felt wanting more and will need to go elsewhere to get further information.

Considering the vast subject matter, the author does a nice job giving an overview of the 20 centuries between the beginning of Catholicism's record-keeping and the present day. There are many interesting side paths, like the politics involved in electing a Pope, and the discussions of the personalities of the Saints (one particular Pope-to-be was so strict that the monks he was in charge of tried to poison him).

The first few chapters are difficult, mainly because the author believes her audience is as familiar with the subject matter as she is, but once you get past that (skip ahead and re-read the first chapter after you finish the book), this is a very interesting read.