Nytimes_logo_1.gif (1794 bytes) @wehaitians.com  arrow.gif (824 bytes) No one writes to the tyrants  arrow.gif (824 bytes) HistoryHeads/Not Just Fade Away
News & Analysis This Month ... Only our journal brings you hours of fine reporting and research.
Correspond with us, including our executive editor, professor Yves A. Isidor, via electronic mail:
letters@wehaitians.com; by way of a telephone: 617-852-7672.
Want to send this page or a link to a friend? Click on mail at the top of this window.

click.gif (16361 bytes)To Advertise With Us Today

Energy & Environment

   MarketPlace

Wall Of Blood/Democracy

Special Reports
MORE  World Breaking News

Editorial/Op-Ed

Papa & Baby Doc Duvalier's victims

news_ana_1_logo.gif (12092 bytes)

 journal.gif (11201 bytes)

Science & Technology This Month
video More World Breaking News

Wehaitians.com Library
Reference Search

Search for:

Sports This Month
video Magazine
 
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (O.E.C.D.)

bluebullet.gif (326 bytes)Must learnedly read, too; in part, of intellectual rigor

bluebullet.gif (326 bytes)Wehaitians.com, waiting for your invaluable financial assistance blue_sign_1.gif (84 bytes)Reference Search 

A SPECIAL SECTION: Haiti, Since the January 12, 2010 Fierce Earthquake
Professor Yves A. Isidor conveys his thoughts or opinion to the U.S. news media (partial)
 jeunehaiti1: A must read publication   music logoListen to deposed dictator Aristide's preferred song:  Kapitalis Se Peche Motel or Capitalism Is a Mortal Sin 
 ___________________________________

Posted Thursday, March 1, 2012

From Galileo to Luther: Vatican archive treasures go on show for first time

                         
By Dario Thuburn | AFP – 
                              

    • Click image for more photos

  • Cardinal Gil de Albornoz's political and military actions, register of the oaths of fealty to Pope Innocent VI, is seen in this undated photo. REUTERS/Daniele Fregonese-Vatican Secret Archives/Handout (VATICAN - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION) NO SALES. NO ARCHIVES. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSView Gallery

    Cardinal Gil de Albornoz's political and military actions, register of the oaths …

  • The Vatican Secret Archives on display in Rome. Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history including Galileo Galilei's trial documents and Martin Luther's excommunication went on public display for the first time Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Giovanni Ciarlo)Enlarge Photo

    The Vatican Secret Archives on display in Rome. Vatican archives documenting centuries …

  • A man looks at the document of Gallileo Gallilei's trial proceedings during an opening of "Lux in Arcana , the Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself", at Musei Capitolini in Rome. Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history went on public display for the first time Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi)Enlarge Photo

    A man looks at the document of Gallileo Gallilei's trial proceedings during an opening …

  • Depositions from the trial of the Templars in France are seen in the Vatican Secret Archives. Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history including Galileo Galilei's trial documents and Martin Luther's excommunication went on public display for the first time Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Fregonese Daniele)Enlarge Photo

    Depositions from the trial of the Templars in France are seen in the Vatican Secret …

Vatican archives documenting centuries of European history including Galileo Galilei's trial documents and Martin Luther's excommunication went on public display for the first time Wednesday.

The exhibit also includes a request to annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the 'Dictatus Papae' of Pope Gregory VII, an 11th-century script asserting the spiritual and terrestrial powers of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The exhibit entitled "Lux in Arcana" in Rome's Capitoline Museums will run until September 9 and organisers said it was a unique chance to see a priceless collection of documents from the Vatican's closely-guarded vaults.

"It will be the first and possibly the only time in history that they leave the confines of the Vatican City walls," organisers said in a statement.

They said the show has "100 original and priceless documents selected among the treasures preserved and cherished by the Vatican Secret Archives for centuries" and includes multimedia installations about the documents.

The exhibition marks the 400th anniversary of the creation of the Vatican Secret Archives -- a term used to mean personal archives -- by Pope Paul V.

The Holy See's second in command, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, opened the show with Vatican culture "minister" Gianfranco Ravasi, Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno and Italian Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi.

Asked what he had been most struck by, Bertone said it was the "historical truth" in documents on Pope Pius XII's papacy during World War II, who has been criticised by Jewish groups for not doing enough to ease their persecution.

"The research on the period of Pius XII has so far generated more than two million files and information about prisoners of war," he said.

One of the documents in the exhibition is a report from papal envoy Francesco Borgongini-Duca on the conditions in seven internment camps in Italy in 1941, asking for aid to be sent to the prisoners.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the head of the Vatican archives Sergio Pagano said all the documents in the vaults from Pius XII's papacy would be made available to researchers "within one or two years".

"The final decision however depends on the pope," he told reporters.

"Benedict XVI's willingness to accelerate the opening, also as a way of silencing dissonant voices on the pontificate of pope Pacelli (Pius XII), can only benefit the Church," he said.

Bertone said earlier the exhibition would help "the search for truth and the common good" -- and would dispel "a pseudo-historical novelistic ambiance", an apparent reference to Dan Brown's bestselling "Da Vinci Code".

Among other treasures are a 10th-century parchment on the division of powers between pope and emperor and a document on the nomination of 13th-century hermit Pietro Morrone as Celestine V -- the only pope ever to resign.

It also has minutes from the 14th-century trials of the Knights Templar.

There is also a 15th-century edict from pope Alexander VI on carving up the New World between Spain and Portugal after Columbus's discovery of America, as well as a secret code he used when he was besieged by French troops.

There are letters from Michelangelo about building St. Peter's basilica in the 16th century, the deed of abdication by queen Christina of Sweden from 1654 and a letter on silk from the 17th-century Chinese empress Helena Wang.

Among the most unusual documents is a letter written on birch bark from the chief of the Ojibwa Native American tribe to pope Leo XIII in the 19th century, calling him: "Grand Master of Prayers, who makes functions of Jesus."

Another rarity is a letter from imprisoned French queen Marie Antoinette after the revolution in 1789, which reads: "The feelings of those who share my sorrow... are the only consolation I can receive in this sad circumstance".

Rome's mayor Alemanno said: "This exhibition is really unique and exceptional. This is the first time that the Vatican secret archives open their doors for an incredible exhibition that spans all historical eras."

Wehaitians.com, the scholarly journal of democracy and human rights
More from wehaitians.com
 Main / Columns / Books And Arts / Miscellaneous