Privilegia Sancti Officii

Item

Country

IT

Name of institution (English)

Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

ita

Contact information: postal address

Piazza del Sant’Uffizio 11, 00193 Rome

Contact information: phone number

0039 0669895945
0039 0669895945

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

archive@cfaith.va

Reference number

ACDF, S.O. Privilegia

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (English)

Privileges of the Holy Office

Title (official language of the state)

Privilegia Sancti Officii

Language of title

lat

Creator / accumulator

Congregazione del Sant'Ufficio dell'Inquisizione

Date(s)

1699/1939

Language(s)

lat

Extent

59 storage units

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Good

Scope and content

The Privilegia Sancti Offici series is part of the Leges et Ordinationes section of the Archivum Sancti Officii Romani (Roman Holy Office Archive) fonds. It contains records concerning the competences, obligations, faculties, appointments, privileges and oaths sworn in the Holy Office. The series also comprises records on matters generally concerning the internal life of the Dicastery and its personnel, as well as events of the Holy Office palace. In this series, it is possible to find various information and documents regarding privileges granted to members of the Jewish communities of the Papal States, especially regarding the three main ghettos of the States: Rome, Ancona and Ferrara.

Archival history

As part of the Leges et Ordinationes section, this series results from the reorganisation by subject of the Roman Holy Office Archive undertaken in the second half of the 18th century, which separated criminal and doctrinal issues. The first volume of the series, containing documents from the origins of the Congregazione del Sant'Ufficio until 1668, is missing. Since 1905, the Privilegia Sancti Officii series also includes the oaths taken by members and staff of the Sant'Ufficio, which were until then systematically gathered in the Iuramenta series.

Administrative / Biographical history

The history of the Roman Inquisition and its archive begins with the appointment by Paul III of a commission of cardinals, which took place on July 21, 1542 with the Bull "Licet ab initio". This congregation was intended to defend the Church from heresies, to maintain the integrity of the faith and to identify and condemn errors and false teachings. When Paul IV died in 1559, the Roman people sacked and burnt the first seat of the Inquisition, located in via di Ripetta, causing the loss of much of the original documentation.
In 1566, Pius V established the seat of the congregation and its archive in the current palace. Initially, the archiving of the documentation was determined by the procedural activity carried out by the congregation. In the second half of the 18th century, a reorganisation by subject was undertaken, separating the criminal issues from the doctrinal ones and creating the series that still compose the archive today. During the 19th century, the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede was subject to various movements and suffered considerable dispersions. With the union of Rome to the French Empire in 1809, it was transported to Paris by order of Napoleon. For the return of the archives to Rome in 1816, the Apostolic Delegate was mandated to destroy the parts of the documentation not strictly essential to administrative activity.
The criminal series were almost entirely burnt and only a few important trials were saved. During the Roman Republic of 1849, the complex of documents underwent further transfers and losses and only in 1868 the part of the documentation necessary for the current administration was relocated to the palace of the Holy Office, while the oldest closed series remained stored in the Apostolic Palace until 1901. Then, this archival material was recovered and rearranged, forming the so-called Stanza Storica. This has remained the main structure of this archive to the present day. The Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede was open for consultation by scholars in 1998.

Access points: locations

Access points: corporate bodies

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

Finding aids

Indexes: 1. Priv. S.O. Index (1669-1800); 2. Indice della Rubricella «Priv.S.O.» (1814-1924).
Rubrics: 1. Privilegia S.O. (1801-1825); 2. Privilegia S.O. (1814-1890); 3. Privilegia S.O. (1814-1924); 4. Privilegia S.O. (1925-1939).
"Inventario generale Shades 6 Ecclesia" (Software for Historical Archives Description – Ecclesia) only available in the reading room

Author of the description

Andrea Cicerchia, 2022

Bibliography

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Title Alternate label Class
Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede Collections (official language of the state)