The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed - LUX IN ARCANA The Vatican archives,
more than 1,000 year old, will go on show in a special exhibition in Rome's
Capitoline Museums from February to September this year to commemorate the
400th anniversary of the establishment.
Conclaves, heresies, popes and emperors. Crusades, excommunications,
ciphered letters. Manuscripts, codices, ancient parchments, strings, deeds
and registers.
A unique and once-in-a-lifetime event recounting history through its sources
as it will be the first and possibly the only time in history allowed out of
the Vatican vaults : 100 original documents, preserved for 400 years in the
Popes' Archive, 85 linear kilometers of shelving; records of an
extraordinary historical value, covering a time-span that stretches from the
8th to the 20th century.
The title, Lux in Arcana, communicates the main scope of the exhibition: the
light that filters through the nooks and crannies of the Archive (lux in
arcana) illuminates a reality that is sealed off from a superficial
knowledge, but understandable only through actual and direct contact with
the Archive's sources, that opens the doors to the discovery of the
sometimes unrevealed history narrated by the documents.
The exhibition is enriched by multimedia installations, guided by an
intriguing but rigorous historical narration, to experience some famous
events from the past and to "re-live" the documents, that will come to life
with tales of the context and the people involved.
Documents of exceptional historical value will be put on display, among
which it is possible to find Pope Alexander VI's "Bolla Inter Cetera" dated
1493 on the discovery of the New World; Gregory VIII's Dictatus Papae; the
bull that proclaimed Frederick II's deposition;; Leo X's excommunication of
Luther; the letter written on silk by Empress Helena of China; the letter
written on birch bark written by Native Americans to Leo XIII.
You will also find an appeal by the English Parliament asking the Pope to
annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The parchment document,
which bears the red wax seals of more than 80 English lords, cardinals and
bishops, was sent to Pope Clement VII in 1530 but failed to resolve the
dispute, which eventually led to religious schism and the founding of the
Church of England.
Documents from the heresy trial of Galileo Galilei, whose scientific
theories attracted the hostility of the Catholic Church in the early 17th
century and one of the most unusual documents is a letter written on birch
bark in 1887 by the Ojibwe Native Americans of Ontario, Canada, to Pope Leo
XIII.
Other previously unseen documents of the so-called "closed period" are
related to Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of not doing enough to speak
out about the Holocaust during the Second World War.
The Vatican Secret Archives represent a cultural heritage of humanity that
has as its epicentre the city of Rome.
The Capitoline Museums were chosen to underline the strong bond between the
city of Rome and the Papacy from the Middle Ages. The magnificent rooms of
the Palazzo dei Conservatori are a monument of civil history in the Rome of
the Popes and the Vatican documents will fit in perfectly.
The origins of both institutions involved are bound to Pope Sisto IV's
artistic sensibilities, but at the same time, the history preserved in the
Vatican Secret Archives entwines itself with the history of Italy, of Europe
and the entire world.
This memorable exhibition making the unvisible visible is already creating
great expectations, fuelled by the mysterious fascination that the Vatican
Secret Archives generate in the collective imagination.
All of the above will make Lux in arcana - The Vatican Secret Archives
reveals itself an event of unprecedented scientific and media importance.
TIMETABLES
It is possible to visit the exhibition Lux in arcana - The Vatican Secret Archives reveals itself everyday, except on Mondays.
Tuesday to Sunday: 9.00 am - 8.00 pm.
TICKETS
Combined Ticket Museum + Exhibition: € 12,00 adults, € 10,00 concessions, € 2,00 “Ridottissimo”.
For residents in the city of Rome (proof of residence required): € 11,00 adult - € 9,00 concessions - € 2,00 “Ridottissimo”.
According to the Municipal by-law n. 32 of 26/03/2009 and due to the exceptionality of the exhibition, for Lux in Arcana, visitors who are usually entitled to free entry will be granted a reduced € 2.00 “Ridottissimo” ticket.
Free admission is granted only to children under 6 years of age, elementary and intermediate school groups, disabled people plus one carer and to “Roma Pass” and “Roma&Più” card holders.
see the official exhibition website
