Add MS 8461

SILVIO DE PAULIS: Inventory of the archive of the Castel Sant'Angelo; 1610. Latin. The Archive at Castel Sant'Angelo or Archivum Arcis was established during the papacy of Clement VIII (1592-1605), even though the papal collection of privileges, royal letters, imperial decrees, deeds, incoming letters to the Curia, and the like had been placed in the castle since the time of Sixtus IV (1471-1484). The archive remained in the castle until it was hastily transferred to the Vatican Palace and incorporated into the Archivio Segreto Vaticano in 1798 following the arrest of Pius VI by the French forces; cf. Boyle, A Survey of the Vatican Archives, pp. 58-60; Vatican Archives, 7.1, pp. 329-330. The present MS. contains an inventory of the Archivum Arcis compiled for Paul V (1605-1621), possibly in preparation of the reorganisation of the papal archives carried out in 1612. The inventory was put together by Silvio De Paulis, Prefect of the archive, who listed the holdings alphabetically and provided a shelfmark in accordance with their location in the castle's cupboards (the inventory is listed by neither in Boyle nor Vatican Archives cited above). Title (f. 1*) 'Series Scripturarum quae in Archivio Arcis Sancti Angeli continentur iussu Sanctissimi Domini Nostri Pauli Papae V a Silvio De Paulis disposita Anno 1610'. Dedication letter (ff. 1-1v) 'Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Paulo V Pontifex Maximus Silvius de Paulis in Adriana Arce Archivii Praefectus foelicitatem / Tertius est iam annus Beatissime Pater', inc. (f. 2) 'Carolus Siciliae Rex privilegia Civitatis Beneventana a Regibus et Pricipibus confirmat ... xv.sss^a.A', expl. (f. 330v) 'Comitatus facultatem concessit ... xiv.iv.KKK / Finis'. Old shelfmark in brown ink 'F.VII.29' in front pastedown, and illegible shelfmark in lower spine: identifiable with Mattei MS. 407 in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, f. 34. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '659' in pencil in front pastedown. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 659 (part).

Paper; ff. 330+vi. Old foliation in ink '1-103' (ff. 1-103), '104-262' (ff. 112-271), omitting one leaf after f. 184. 338 x 229mm. Horizontal catchwords on each leaf. One Italian hand. 17th-cent. Italian binding of full vellum; edges mottled in red.