The Expansion and the Archives of Rome – A Guide for Secular Historians of the Early Modern Period

Abstract

One of the paradoxes of early modern European expansion history is that the archives of Rome are not necessarily the richest source for information about the Catholic overseas missions. Nor, as one might hope, are they ideally suited for affording an independent view of the workings of the Iberian colonies. Moreover, there are puzzling gaps in the most valuable of the collections, those of the Society of Jesus, no doubt due to the dissolution of the first phase of order in the 1760s. As a consequence, researchers who concentrate primarily upon secular history, but who often use ecclesiastical sources, tend to gravitate toward Lisbon, Madrid and Seville, and to ignore the archives and libraries of the Vatican almost entirely, except for the excellent printed documents published by the Jesuits. In a way, this approach – or, rather non-approach – is justified.