Vatican City Research Articles

Enhancing the Ecosystem of Central Areas in European Metropolises: A Project for Rome

The paper presents the results of a third-party research project defining the process of redevelopment and social and environmental regeneration along the historic urban axis of Via Nazionale and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome. The site is affected by the construction of the new tram line connecting Termini Station to the Vatican City. The study proposes an approach to the design of public spaces that, starting by inhibiting traffic from rubber-tired vehicles and private cars and the application of environmental mitigation strategies, allows to reduce pollutant emissions, enhance the cultural heritage along the urban axis, and revitalise cultural, social, and commercial activities, thus triggering a virtuous process of sustainable growth and development.

MORE AND LESS EVIDENCE FOR THE TEXT OF JULIUS EXUPERANTIUS

Abstract This paper examines a neglected fifteenth-century manuscript of the opusculum of Julius Exuperantius. It argues that that manuscript (Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, 748) is a sibling of Vatican City, BAV, Vat. lat. 3334, and situates the new manuscript in the stemma established by the last editor. It then proposes a modification to that editor's stemma, arguing that those two fifteenth-century manuscripts in fact descend from Milan, BA, H 37 sup., once owned by Francesco Pizolpasso. Finally, it considers the implications of those arguments for the editing and the history of the text.

Power and its exercise in the Vatican City State

AbstractThe problem of relations between Church and state has existed from the very beginnings of Christianity and has evolved over centuries. The dominant model today is one of separation between the state and religious communities. In the context of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican City State remains the only exception to this principle. This article examines the tensions inherent in the way in which the Roman Pontiff, as head of the Vatican City State, exercises both religious and secular power, and how rule of law principles operate to constrain the operation of power as between the various organs of this state.

Overcoming the Patronage System: Propaganda Fide and Its Portuguese Patronage Documents on China in the Early Modern Period

From its foundation in 1622, the Congregation de Propaganda Fide held supreme jurisdiction over all missionary activities of the Catholic Church at the global level, with authority coming directly from the pope. Its main goals were the expansion of the Catholic faith, the reaffirmation of papal spiritual primacy, and the promotion of Indigenous clergy throughout the world, which put Propaganda Fide in direct competition with secular rulers who also wanted to control missionary activities in their overseas territories. This article will examine one such conflict, namely that regarding Portugal and its royal patronage system in China. The Historical Archive of Propaganda Fide in the Vatican City holds extensive material concerning Portuguese patronage and China, which has remained relatively unknown and understudied. Through an examination of several of the most significant documents, such as the formal terms sent by the Portuguese court to the Holy See, the response of Propaganda Fide, and the final declaration of the Holy See, which would become the cornerstone for all future decisions over the patronage system, it is suggested that these negotiations about China are in fact central to a wider shift in global Catholic policy and politics in the field of missionary activity.

Reasons for Acquiring and Effects of Losing Vatican City State Citizenship

Reasons for Acquiring and Effects of Losing Vatican City State Citizenship

The UNCRC and the Holy See

This contribution analyses the complex problems arising from the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to the Holy See. Taking the continuous scandal of sexual abuses on children within the Catholic Church as a case study, it highlights the still persistent tension within international law between the protection of sovereignty and the full enjoyment of human rights, including children’s rights. To this end, after a preliminary analysis of the Holy See’s sui generis international legal personality, this contribution investigates two issues that prevent the Holy See from being held responsible for violation of children’s rights under international law. First, it examines the attribution of the conduct of local bishops/priests accused of sexual abuses worldwide to the Holy See, also in light of Pope Francis’ latest institutional reforms. Second, it addresses the immunity granted to the Holy See in these circumstances, thus questioning the rationale of such immunity when children are involved. Indeed, this article argues that, despite the Holy See having ratified the UNCRC (Article 34 of which calls on parties to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse), children’s rights and their best interests are generally ignored when the sexual abuse plague within the Church is encountered in international fora. Keywords: UNCRC; Holy See; Vatican City State; international law of responsibility; immunity; sexual abuses.

New Literature from the Paris Disputation against the Talmud

Abstract In 1239, the convert Nicholas Donin submitted thirty-five articles against the Talmud to Pope Gregory IX. As a result, Christendom became aware of how Jews observed an oral law that was allegedly plagued with folly, blasphemy, and heresy. This triggered the infamous trial against the Talmud and resulted in the production of several Latin translations of rabbinical texts, including the compilation of the Extractiones de Talmud (1245). The present article mainly focusses on a short text taken from the manuscript Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 822 (folios 204ra–205ra), which includes a series of Talmudic passages that derive from texts which emerged from the Paris Disputation against the Talmud (1240–1245). From it, we are able to infer new information regarding the genesis of subsequent anti-Jewish works, including the Errores Iudaeorum by Thibaud de Sézanne and Passau Anonymous anti-Jewish sections. Additionally, we also provide the edition and translation of the text of the Vatican manuscript at the end of the article.

Strategies to decrease inequalities in cancer therapeutics, care and prevention: Proceedings on a conference organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, Vatican City, February 23-24, 2023.

Analyses of inequalities related to prevention and cancer therapeutics/care show disparities between countries with different economic standing, and within countries with high Gross Domestic Product. The development of basic technological and biological research provides clinical and prevention opportunities that make their implementation into healthcare systems more complex, mainly due to the growth of Personalized/Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM). Initiatives like the USA-Cancer Moonshot and the EU-Mission on Cancer and Europe's Beating Cancer Plan are initiated to boost cancer prevention and therapeutics/care innovation and to mitigate present inequalities. The conference organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the European Academy of Cancer Sciences discussed the inequality problem, dependent on the economic status of a country, the increasing demands for infrastructure supportive of innovative research and its implementation in healthcare and prevention programs. Establishing translational research defined as a coherent cancer research continuum is still a challenge. Research has to cover the entire continuum from basic to outcomes research for clinical and prevention modalities. Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCCs) are of critical importance for integrating research innovations to preclinical and clinical research, as for ensuring state-of-the-art patient care within healthcare systems. International collaborative networks between CCCs are necessary to reach the critical mass of infrastructures and patients for PCM research, and for introducing prevention modalities and new treatments effectively. Outcomes and health economics research are required to assess the cost-effectiveness of new interventions, currently a missing element in the research portfolio. Data sharing and critical mass are essential for innovative research to develop PCM. Despite advances in cancer research, cancer incidence and prevalence is growing. Making cancer research infrastructures accessible for all patients, considering the increasing inequalities, requires science policy actions incentivizing research aimed at prevention and cancer therapeutics/care with an increased focus on patients' needs and cost-effective healthcare.

Symbolic Artistry in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons

In a quest of exploring his potentials and developing his personal interests, the young Dan Brown decided to direct his sails toward the world of fiction. After penning several literary pieces, such as Digital Fortress (1998), Angels and Demons (2000) and Deception Point (2001), he succeeded in publishing his groundbreaking thriller The Da Vinci Code in 2003, which quickly captured the eye of many readers around the world. Whether admirers or critics of this famous literary piece, over two hundred million copies were sold out globally for its “twisty adrenaline-fueled yet cerebral” plot (Alter, 2020). He owns a book collection of five thrillers that are labelled as ‘The Robert Langdon Series.’ The first book of this collection is Angels and Demons. It follows up the journey of a Harvard professor named Robert Langdon, who is summoned to unlock the mystery of four missing cardinals who disappeared just before the election of a new Pope in Vatican City was about to take place. With the help of Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the anti-matter scientist Leonardo Vetra at CERN, Langdon attempts to save their lives. It requires the encryption of symbols and other forms of art to successfully reach the final whereabouts of the cardinals. Their search also implicitly reveals that there is more to

Determinants of religious tourists’ social media usage behaviour

ABSTRACT The phenomenon of religion, as a crucial element of human behaviour, is one of the main motives for travelling. Although religious tourism movements are increasing, the behaviour patterns of religious tourists on various communication platforms such as social media have been mostly neglected. The objective of this study is to examine the antecedents of religious tourists’ intention to share tourism experiences on social media, based on the Technology Acceptance Model. The data were collected from 325 international tourists visiting Vatican City. Findings indicated that user experience level with social media influences perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are significant determinants of intention to share tourism experiences on social media. Results also highlighted the negative moderating role of religiosity level on the relationship between these variables. Hereby, the study contributed to the literature by showing that religious tourists represent a heterogeneous market segment having different religiosity levels and social media usage patterns.

An updated checklist of the bryophytes of Italy, including the Republic of San Marino and Vatican City State

The present contribution offers an updated inventory of recorded bryophyte species for Italy, providing the regional distribution for each one. The checklist is based on literature data, revision of bryological collections from several Italian and foreign institutional or private herbaria and recent observations and reports. Five categories based on Natural Breaks have been identified to highlight the floristic diversity between the administrative regions. The checklist includes 1273 taxa (1220 species, 17 subspecies and 36 varieties). Among these, hornworts and liverworts are represented by 301 species, 5 subspecies and 4 varieties, grouped into 99 genera and 55 families, while mosses total 919 species, 12 subspecies and 32 varieties, grouped into 259 genera and 77 families. Such data is presented by a table distinguishing their presence before and after 1968, as well as indicating dubious species based on information relating to bibliographic data. Critical notes on distribution and taxonomy are included and, for ease of reference, synonyms are given for each species. In the last three years, the bryoflora of Italy has increased by 29 taxa. The analysis of the data showed that the regions with the highest peaks of the Alpine chain are the ones with the greatest biodiversity. Among the Apennine regions, Tuscany is the most floristically rich. Sardinia and Sicily have medium levels of biodiversity, favoured by their geomorphological diversity and insularity. For some regions, the low bryophyte richness is linked to the lack of research. Furthermore, the trend of scientific publications on bryophytes over the last 200 years is highlighted.

'When the House is on Fire': Cardinal Mercati, the Pius-Stiftung–Kehr Affair and the Case of Madam Ludwig

This research based essay discusses interwoven cases connected to wartime destruction and disarray in relation to cultural heritage – libraries, manuscripts and research collections. It is based mainly on archival material in collections in the Vatican City, mostly sections of the correspondence of Cardinal Librarian Giovanni Mercati that are as yet uncatalogued and have hitherto not been available for research. The essay focuses on lost research material in the chaos and turmoil of war, such as the scholar Paul Kehr’s manuscript and library collections, as well as the so-called Pius Stiftung: research funds provided by the Holy See.

Editorial introductions.

Editorial introductions.

I tesori d’arte del Vaticano nel Trattato lateranense

The art treasures of the Vatican in the Lateran Treaty
 ABSTRACT: Drawing inspiration from a recent initiative by the Pontiff, the contribution focuses on the peculiar juridical condition of the art treasures kept in the Vatican City, resulting from a series of provisions of the Lateran Treaty, other international conventions and recent Vatican legislation on the protection of cultural heritage. The result is a complex and articulated regulatory framework that underlines the role of the Holy See as a custodian and guarantor of one of the greatest historical and artistic heritages of humanity.
 SOMMARIO - 1. Un gesto ecumenico di papa Francesco - 2. L’art. 18 del Trattato lateranense - 3. L’articolato quadro normativo attuale - 4. Suggestioni e questioni emergenti - 5. I tesori d’arte del Vaticano e la loro peculiare condizione giuridica - 6. Osservazioni conclusive.

Dominating Demons in the Old English Prose Acts of Andrew

Dominating Demons in the Old English Prose <i>Acts of Andrew</i>

Commedia: A Digital Edition ed. by Prue Shaw

Reviewed by: Commedia: A Digital Editioned. by Prue Shaw Elizabeth Coggeshall Commedia: A Digital Edition, 2nded. Edited by Prue Shaw. Florence: Fondazione Ezio Franceschini; Saskatoon: Inkless Editions, 2021. https://www.dantecommedia.it. ISBN: 1-904628-21-4. T he year 2021 wasmomentous for Dante studies, marking, as it did, the seventh centenary of the poet's death. Universities, scholarly societies, museums, libraries, and other public-serving institutions commemorated the occasion with in-person and online talks and conferences, curated exhibits, performances, and other celebratory remembrances of the anniversary of Dante's death in Ravenna in September 1321. Among these commemorative exercises, one of the most noteworthy was the release of the second edition of Prue Shaw's digital Commedia, published by Inkless Editions (formerly Scholarly Digital Editions) and SISMEL. The CommediaProject, which uses computer analysis to analyze seven key [End Page 167]witnesses in the poem's early manuscript tradition, was originally published on DVD-ROM in 2010. Since then, it has proven to be one of the most valuable resources for the study of the poem's early transmission, even if access to it was limited. The revised edition of the project expands the reach of this rich resource: unlike its limited-access predecessor, the 2021 edition was published as an open-access, free website (https://www.dantecommedia.it/), featuring several new or expanded tools for research. Much like the DVD, the 2021 website presents an information-rich critical edition of the Commedia, with transcriptions of the so-called Sanguineti seven: Ash (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 828), Ham (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MS Hamilton 203), LauSC (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Plut. 26 sin. 1), Mart (Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Aldina AP XVI 25), Rb (Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Ricc. 1005; and Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, MS AG XII 2), Triv (Milan, Biblioteca dell'Archivio Storico Civico e Trivulziana, MS Trivulziano 1080), and Urb (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Urb. lat. 366). These are seven complete manuscripts that Federico Sanguineti had identified to compile his 2001 critical edition, revising Giuseppe Petrocchi's 1966–67 Edizione nazionale, which had, until Sanguineti's revision, been nearly universally adopted as the standard edition of the Commedia. The CommediaProject team originally set out to test the validity of Sanguineti's stemma using computerized phylogenetic analysis. The results of that analysis are presented at length in the site's editorial material, which is largely reprinted from the original edition. Shaw's DVD-ROM edition has been much discussed, and its methods and conclusions debated (see, e.g., Giorgio Inglese, "Rev. of Dante Alighieri, Commedia. A Digital Edition, ed. Prue Shaw," Giornale storico della letteratura italiana189, no. 627 [2012]: 453–5; Vera Ribaudo, "Nuovi orizzonti dell'ecdotica? L'edizione elettronica della Monarchiae della Commediadi Prue Shaw," L'Alighieri42, no. 2 [2013]: 95–127; Paolo Trovato, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lachmann's Method[Libreriauniversitaria, 2014], 208–18; Elena Spadini, "Processing Dante's Commedia: From Sanguineti's Edition to Digital Tools," RIDE3 [2015]). As reviewers have noted, the 2010 edition has much to commend it, features that the revised edition retains or [End Page 168]enhances: meticulous transcriptions that render both text and editorial interventions exactly as they appear on the page; high-resolution images of manuscript folios (excepting MS Urb. lat. 366 of the Vatican Library, excluded at that time because of copyright restrictions but now fully visualizable on the revised site); accurate and thorough witness descriptions, including their paleographical and codicological features; clear, functional, and effective tools for collation; variant maps, wherein relationships between witnesses are graphed as "unrooted phylograms" representing proximity and divergence from one another; and the VBase tool, a proprietary software for complex variant analysis. Many of these features are more prominently displayed or more easily accessible on the revised site, such as the variant maps, which appear in thumbnail images alongside the collation, and VBase, now much more readily accessed through a single click on the static header (previously VBase was only accessible at the bottom of the long drop-down menu in the editorial material). Because much has been said of...

Reading Japanese Documents from the Marega Collection: An Introductory Manual with Selected Texts by Naohiro Ōta

Reviewed by: Reading Japanese Documents from the Marega Collection: An Introductory Manual with Selected Texts by Naohiro Ōta Daniele Lauro Naohiro Ōta. Reading Japanese Documents from the Marega Collection: An Introductory Manual with Selected Texts. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2021. ix + 134 pp., color illustrations, maps. ISBN: 978-88-210-1076-7. Achief challenge that all scholars of premodern Japan are bound to encounter in the course of their careers is acquiring sufficient skills to read and understand komonjo, a term used to describe various types of documents produced before the Meiji period (1868–1912). The challenge is twofold. First, komonjo feature grammatical structures and words that are no longer in use or that have assumed different meanings in modern Japanese. Second, premodern documents are often written using kuzushiji, a cursive style in which the original shape of the characters is altered, thus making the task of reading texts particularly daunting. In Japan, where the field of paleography emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, an abundance of komonjo manuals and dictionaries have been published over the years. Additionally, Japanese universities, museums, and other research institutions routinely offer classes for the study of premodern documents. Outside of Japan, however, opportunities are more limited, despite the initiatives launched in the past decade by European and American universities. In this context, Naohiro Ōta's volume, Reading Japanese Documents from the Marega Collection, possibly the first komonjo primer in English, is a long-awaited and much-needed contribution. Ōta, a professor at the National Institute of Japanese Literature (Tokyo), developed the volume as a by-product of an international project involving Japanese and European scholars to catalog and digitize a forgotten collection of premodern Japanese documents donated by Mario Marega, a Salesian missionary to Japan, to the Vatican Apostolic Library in the 1950s. The approximately 14,500 documents that Marega collected during his time in Ōita Prefecture were produced between the seventeenth and the nineteenth [End Page 152] century and pertain to the institutions used to control and prevent the spread of Christianity, a religion that had arrived in Japan in the mid-sixteenth century but had been outlawed by the military government of the Tokugawa in the early seventeenth century. The volume, whose primary aim is "to introduce the basic skills for reading Japanese early modern records," is divided into five chapters (3). The first chapter provides an overview of the collaborative efforts that started in 2012 to study and digitize the Marega Collection. The chapter also discusses the genesis of the volume and some of the challenges that the editors, three Italian scholars of Japan, tackled to make the volume as approachable as possible to non-Japanese readers. Chapter 2 introduces foundational knowledge for the study of komonjo, and it is divided into four sections. The first explores the material dimension of documents by examining traditional Japanese writing implements and the formats of paper used for administrative purposes, as well as common techniques to wrap and seal documents. The discussion of the "documents as objects" is noteworthy because, in addition to supplying the reader with the technical knowledge to talk about premodern administrative documents, it casts light on the wealth of information that can be gathered by analyzing the material aspects of written records. For example, we learn that the type of paper and the format used in official documents depended on the social and power dynamics between the sender and the receiver. The second section examines "writing and language as gateways to a full understanding of the documents' content" (15). Ōta starts with an explanation of the traditional scripts as well as the writing styles used in premodern administrative documents. Next, he introduces some techniques to decipher texts written in the complex cursive style (kuzushiji) and some conventions that are adopted in premodern texts to read characters in the correct order. Finally, the author examines the various parts of a document and their position in the text, and general grammatical aspects of sōrōbun, a literary style commonly used in administrative documents. This section is beneficial because the structure of Japanese premodern administrative sources follows conventions that are not necessarily intuitive for non-Japanese readers. For...

Are Catholics a nation? The problem of defining nationalism

AbstractFor all their interest as social phenomena, nations and nationalism have proven to be difficult terms to define, which has resulted in a lack of consensus among scholars working on these subjects. In this paper, it is my intention to expose the deep chasm that engulfs our present knowledge about what nations are. My method for achieving this goal comprises a critical engagement with the most popular definitions of nations and nationalism based upon a single hypothetical premise: that the Holy See of the Catholic Church, with its seat in Vatican City, is a nation‐state which represents a purported Catholic nation. The results of this study suggest that current approaches to the definition of nations and nationalism – be they based on alleged objective criteria, voluntary association, political organization, communal imagination, or organizational patterns – are generally incapable of dismissing the claim of Catholics to nationhood. Despite this fact, certain elements sketched within some of these definitions might hold the key to developing more precise and usable definitions of these two concepts in the future.

From ‘the land of the rising sun’ to ‘the countries of the sun’: Mishima Yukio in Greece and Italy

AbstractThe famous Japanese author Mishima Yukio is known to have been keenly interested in ancient Greek culture. In this article, I seek to explain how his visit to Greece and Italy in the spring of 1952 intensified his philhellenism. To such an end, I will rely on Mishima’s travelogue titled Apollo’s Cup, which was published in the fall of that same year. I will pay close attention to Mishima’s encounters with the ancient ruins in Athens and with the sculptures of Antinous in the Vatican City, because they were the highlights of Mishima’s trip. I will argue that Mishima’s philhellenism was driven by his personal needs at the time and heightened by his fascination for the materiality of ancient Greece, since the ‘placeness’ of ancient Greece allowed Mishima not only to position and approach ancient Greece but also to idealize ancient Greece.

Arma Veritatis : Poland and the World Exhibition of the Catholic Press (Esposizione mondiale della stampa cattolica), Vatican City, 1936

The World Exhibition of the Catholic Press held in the Vatican City from mid-May 1936, though not a 'universal' exhibition, but � seemingly � an internal affair of the Catholic Church, attracted representations of 45 states of Europe and America and 53 regions of the remaining three continents. True to its motto, its aim was propagandistic, directed against the current communist and liberal tendencies. The present paper, which looks at the exhibition from the perspective of the Polish room, is based on documentary materials left by its prime mover, Fr Stanis�aw Adamski, bishop of Katowice, responsible for the mass media in Polish episcopate. An interesting paradox is that it was not Poland as a state, but the representation of Polish Church that participated in the event. The state authorities were contacted only as much as political correctness and diplomatic courtesy required, or with the prospect of some financial support. They seemed to be indifferent and, at any rate, unwilling to spend any money on the exhibition, even though it was advertised by the Church as an excellent promotional opportunity. Bishop Adamski almost single-handedly devised the Polish exhibit, including the iconography and political message of a painting entitled Polonia � Sanctorum Mater et Scutum Christianitatis ('Poland � Mother of the Saints and Shield of Christianity'), which depicted important personalities from Polish history, including � tellingly � the figures of King John III Sobieski and Marshall J�zef Pi�sudski.