On the sources for the history of the Roman Curia, 1860–70s

Studies on the history of the Papacy in the nineteenth century have traditionally focused on the activities of the Pontiffs. The role played by the Roman Curia, the administrative body of the Holy See, has long been either overlooked or regarded as a secondary subject. As the major events of most pontificates have been studied, and with the 2022 reform of the Roman Curia, historians have become increasingly interested in the functioning of this institution and the participation of its officials in the decision-making process. Consequently, the question of sources on the history of the Roman Curia is of great relevance. The author of the article, taking the case of documents from the 1860s–70s as an example, demonstrates that the study of the role of the Curia in the history of the Papacy requires recourse to letters and notes of cardinals, correspondence and diaries of their contemporaries, as well as diplomatic correspondence and press reports. These sources allow one to see a more complex picture of what was happening in the Roman Curia during the period of the Holy See’s adaptation to the new realities associated with secularisation, the tendency of states to revise the model of relations with the Catholic Church, and the Pontiff’s loss of temporal authority. The author points out that sources on the history of the Roman Curia are concentrated in the Vatican and Italy, but a number of unpublished materials on the role of the administrative body of the Holy See are preserved in the archives of other countries, including Russia.