Customer Reviews

Vatican Secret Archives

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What a treasure! Although many have taken tours of the Vatican none have been admitted to the Secret Archives. In fact, on a recent tour we were told that no one was allowed access to this very private place holding documents dating back to the 8th century, and where areas are decorated with breathtakingly beautiful 16th and 17th century frescoes. Even Dan Brown was not allowed access.

However, according to THE VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES there are some public rooms open to academics. That aside, now for the first time in an amazing volume the world is privy to over 100 documents housed in this hitherto unavailable collection. All are beautifully photographed, here to study, peruse to our heart's content. The double page photos of the frescoes are eye popping while pictures of the reading rooms, laboratories, galleries, and the famed Tower Of Winds are revelatory.

The documents, which were chosen by a special commission, begin with "Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum" from the end of the 8th century. We continue through correspondence between Michelangelo and Paul III, see a letter written by Saint Teresa of Avila, and correspondence from Queen Elizabeth penned in 1579. We read documents from the heresy trial against Galileo, letters from Pius XI to Hitler, as well as a great deal more. In addition to stunning photography the documents are explicated by commentary from Vatican scholars.

This volume is so rich with history that it cannot be absorbed in a single sitting. THE VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES is a one-of-a-kind volume, standing alone in its presentation of previously unpublished documents accompanied by edifying comments. It is a book to treasure, to return to again and again.

My highest recommendation.

- Gail Cooke

In a foreword, Cardinal Farina who oversees the famed Vatican archives writes that the presentation of the documents in this book "create[s] a harmonious relation between knowledge and curiosity, on the one hand helping to discover the unknown and the surprise of a portrayed representation and on the other its luminosity and beauty." This is achieved by expert photographs of the varied documents going back over centuries against a black background. Each document sharply photographed against such a background stands out so that it seems almost tactile and its details of calligraphy, marginalia, decoration, seals, and when present, its color are readily gleaned. Lengthy annotations to each relate the background of its composition, its historical or religious significance often including quotes, and its material (e. g., vellum).

"An illustrated publication on the Vatican Secret Archives is not a novelty," the Cardinal also writes. Nonetheless, this publication stands out because of its incomparable photography emphasizing the uniqueness of each document and its authoritative, well-focused annotations. Readers coming new to the field of historical manuscripts and documents will understand the enthusiasm among collectors for not only their historical significance, but also their unique aesthetic qualities. Collectors of similar documents available through dealers or auctions can pore through the photographs for familiarity with touches such as calligraphic flourishes or stamps that increase the desirability of a document.

Front matter explains that the term "secret" for the Papal archives is related to the Latin derivation for "secretary" as someone in a position of trust often making up documents for a Pope, as with "secretarial documents". Though translated "secret" in English, the term in this sense implies "personal" or "private." While regarded as "private archives of the pope," most are made available to scholars with a good reason for seeing particular ones. Every year about 1,500 scholars do study documents in a reading room or internal library. The archives now have a laboratory for photography and digital reproduction, computer databases and operations, and administrative services connected to them.

This publication on the Vatican Secret Archives is an ideal gift for any book or ephemera lover. An art and coffee-table book offering moments of visual treats when opened to any page, it is also a work to be referred to again and again by the serious collector and the scholar for the knowledge to be gained.

The photography in this coffee table book is visually stunning. There are some obscure "arty" shots but on the whole, I would have purchased it for the photos alone. The text is very interesting and historically riviting. There are a few translation problems but this is a must have for history buffs. The sections on Henry VIII and the Reformation alone are worth the price. To see the actual documents is a gift. A treasure of a book.

Past papers
The Vatican turns a page--slowly

Apr 29th 2010 | ROME | From The Economist print edition

NO UMBERTO ECO fan should go near the Tower of Winds: it could bring on sensory overload. Up a seemingly endless winding staircase is a room whose frescoes are alive with symbolism. The floor is sprinkled with signs of the zodiac and bisected by a line of white marble onto which a sun ray falls each day at noon. The so-called Meridian Hall, created to verify the accuracy of the calendar Pope Gregory XIII promulgated in 1582, is in the Vatican Secret Archives, which hold some 10m documents stored by the papacy over the past 1,200 years.

The name is a misleading anachronism that dates from when secret meant private ("secretary" has the same derivation). Some of the archives' records have been published in scholarly texts. Most have been physically available to researchers since the late 19th century. But access has always been severely restricted.

That is set to change. The success of Dan Brown's sinister depictions of Roman Catholicism, and his use of the Vatican Secret Archives as a setting for his novel "Angels and Demons", may be one reason for a policy of recent, greater openness. The most recent development is a lavishly illustrated, commercially published volume (VdH Books, $99.50 and £55). A paperback version should be available next year.

It includes reproductions of 105 documents, including 19 that have never before been published. The accompanying text rarely misses a chance to put the Holy See's slant on history, but this is still a bibliophile's treasure house. There is a church donation from 809. There are letters to popes from potentates, including the Great Khan Guyuk, sent from Karakorum in 1246, and from saints like the barely literate French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, who was born at Lourdes and whose message had to be corrected four times by the secretary of her convent.

There is correspondence with geniuses including Petrarch and Michelangelo, and a missive from that most notorious of cardinal's daughters, Lucrezia Borgia. The book contains treaties and Concordats, a papal dispensation for Giovanni Boccaccio, a summary of the trial of Giordano Bruno, the award of a decoration to Mozart and some delightful curiosities. One is a letter from native Americans to Pope Leo XIII. It was written on tree bark and sent from "where there is much grass in the month of the flowers".

When I read the review of this book, I just had to have it. But is sits on the coffee table, looked at but unread, as the font is so small I canot see it. It's not the sort of book you want to read with a high res magnifying glass. What a disappointment.

Book arrived on time & in great condition. Very pleased with the pricing & service.

The editors, and a commentator picked at random, Marcel Choppin, expect what Cardinal Raffaele Farina refers to, in his cover letter, as "the general reading public beyond the circle of experts" to comprehend sentences such as, " . . . the German mystic's submission (l.24-25:"[...]corrigo et recorco, ut premise,corrigam et revocabo in genere et in specie quandocumque. . . . . " etc. etc. etc. . . . .as if these Latin quotes, ad nauseam et ad infinitum, without explanation or translation, were understandable to the above-referred "general reading public". The book is filled with such Latin quotes, without commentators--or the official translator---a certain "Mons.James O'Brien, Official of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments"--- going to that trouble--apparently on the premise that the general reading public is qualified to understand medieval Latin. Half of the tome consists of totally irrelevant and uninteresting photographic views--on sepia background--of Vatican corridors, nooks and crannies. . . filler pages at best and a ripoff at worst.
As if that weren't galling enough, the texts are white on black in a minuscule font--probably number 6 or 8--requiring the use of a powerful magnifying glass. There is plenty of space on most pages to have accomodated a more legible font--a number 12 for example.This state of affairs is so much the more galling as I have published an illustrated memoir' Survival 1933-1944" with a perfectly legible font.Survival, 1933-1944 (English, French and German Edition)
It is no wonder that the publishers have reduced the original ripoff price of $100. to a still overpriced $60.00--especially as a number of similarly sized illustrated coffee table tomes printed on high quality gloss-- albeit printed in China-- are to be had at any major bookstore for around $ 19.99- - -about $20. I am toying with idea of asking for a refund.