The collections of the Archivum Romanum
ARSI is the archives of the central government of the Society of Jesus worldwide. It does not hold all Jesuit collections that scholars might seek. For example, the Fondo Gesuitico dei Manoscritti (Jesuit manuscript collection) is held by the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II, and by the Archivio di Stato, Rome. The Vatican Archives also has considerable holdings relating to the activities of Jesuits.
For a description of the archives holdings see F. Danieluk’s article.
Some ARSI materials for North and South America may be consulted on microfilm in St Louis University, MO, USA:
http://lib.slu.edu/special-collections/collections/vfl/jesuit
Jan Philip ROOTHAAN SJ, superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1829-53
For that part of the Roothaan correspondence conserved at Georgetown University, see `The Jan Philip Roothaan, S.J. Archive´ at Georgetown University Manuscripts. Finding Aid: click here.
For records of the academic activities of Jesuits in Rome, see Archivio Pontificia Università Gregoriana http://www.archiviopug.org/.
The Catalogs are an essential instrument for biographical research on Jesuits. They contain lists of Jesuits divided geographically by Province, and then by house, or residence, or college, together with the mission assigned to each man. Further, for each Jesuit the Catalog contains date of birth, year of entry into the Society of Jesus, and year for Final Vows (final incorporation into the Society).
Here we present the annual Catalogs; these may be dated from the beginning of the year (ineunte) and thus refer to the preceding year; or they may be dated at the end of the year (exunte).
Catalogs are compiled for the individual Provinces. Any Missions, Regions etc are given within the Catalog of the Province to which these belong. To check to which Province a given mission belonged it is necessary to consult the reference work Data Chronologica Originis et Evolutionis Regionum Provinciarum. See:
The following list refers to the period after the universal Suppression of the Society (1773), and includes the first years after the universal Restoration (1814). Thus it covers the period 1774-1829. In this initial period the Catalogs don’t always have a standard format – at times these are merely a simple list. Usually they are in manuscript form. In the case of those Catalogs which were printed, the OCR treatment has been applied. No correction by hand has been made. As a result, it is possible to use the search facility within the PDF; if however a given name does not appear, that name may however still be present in the text.
As can be seen from the following list, the various series of Catalogs begin in different years, according to the Province. It is necessary to consult the Data Chronologicain order to check when a given province was re-established. There are several lacunae in the series of Catalogs presented here.
* bold = OCRed researchable PDFs.
The following list refers to the period of Fr. Roothaan's Generalate 1829-1853.
* bold = OCRed researchable PDFs.
The following list refers to the period 1854-1885. All files are OCRed researchable PDFs.
The following list refers to the period 1886-1914. All files are OCRed researchable PDFs.
The following list refers to the period 1915-1930. All files are OCRed researchable PDFs.
The inventory of Fondo Gesuitico Collegia (prepared by Pio Pecchiai in 1938-39) is available.
The series "Collegia" (16th to 18th centuries) refers to different institutions of the Society of Jesus across the world.
These include:
• Colleges (non-residential and residential) for the instruction of boys (bourgeois and noble, secondary level and university level)
• Professed houses
• Houses of formation for Jesuits
• Seminaries;
• Residences
The inventory is multilingual following the original title of the documents (Italian, Latin, Spanish, German, etc.).Where there was no title in the original document, a heading in Italian has been used.
The "Collegia" series is almost entirely digitalized. The digital version is based on conversion of microfilms with the ensuing technical limits. Hence reproduction requests will be processed only for an entire folder, not for single documents.
The Indipetae were letters addressed by individual
Jesuits to Father General requesting to be sent to work in the mission
areas outside Europe. About 14,000 of these autograph letters
(pre-1773) are held in ARSI. There are also Indipetae for the post-1814 era. For an Index (for years 1583-1773) click here.
La sezione Opera Nostrorum (480 nn.) è una raccolta di opere di scrittori gesuiti, trattati teologici, ascetici, storici, letterari (con l'inclusione di alcuni epistolari). Si tratta di una collezione eterogenea per lo più di opere staccate. Vi hanno tuttavia trovato posto collane di grande pregio che fanno capo ad una personalità di rilievo. Per citarne solo alcune: i trattati teologici e spirituali del P. Giacomo Lainez (nn. 72-83 e 208-209); raccolte abbondanti di consultazioni del Card. Gio. De Lugo (nn. 158- 160); il fondo S. Roberto Bellarmino, trattati e carteggi (nn. 230-251); il lascito del Card. Sforza Pallavicina (nn. 270-278); il rinomato e molto sfruttato fondo Antonio Possevino (nn. 313-339); il lascito del convertito svedese Lorenzo Thyulen (1746-1831, nn. 381-387); alcuni di questi gruppi avevano costituito dei fondi minori autonomi. Come curiosità spicca fra i nn. 343 e 350, una piccola collana di testi arabici.
For an Index click here.
This fond contains the materials of the movement ‘Apostleship of Prayer’, founded 3 Dec. 1844 by François-Xavier Gautrelet SJ (1807-86) in the Jesuit formation house of Vals-près-le-Puy (Haute-Loire, France). Henri Ramière SJ, director-general from 1861-1884, defined the movement as ‘a league of zeal and of prayer in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus’. The movement spread throughout the Catholic world, and this is reflected in the documents.
The Inventory presented here (it is in Italian) is of the older part of the fond (‘Sezione antica’). This Inventory is in two parts: the first contains the description of the documents, while the second is the Index, divided according to entities, persons, places and other entries. Regarding the structure of the fond and other relevant information, please see the Introduction to the Inventory.
Inventario Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione antica
Indici Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione antica
Inventario Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione moderna Vol I (1 - 292)
Inventario Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione moderna Vol II (293 - 543)
Indici Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione moderna
Inventario Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione iconografica Vol I (1 - 532)
Inventario Apostolato della Preghiera - sezione iconografica Vol II (533 - 1077)
The fond comprises autograph materials, corrispondence and other documents pertaining to P. Jan Philip Roothaan SJ (1785-1853), XXI superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1829 to 1853.
The fond contains 1829 items conserved in 69 folders which are grouped in 16 containers. The Inventory presented here (it is in Italian) is in two volumes, containing the description of the documents, together with a third volume which is the Index. This arrangement in two volumes mirrors the internal structure of the fond: the first volume describe the sections ‘Vita e notizie biografiche’, together with ‘Scritti filosofici, teologici, umanistici’; the second volume contains the section Corrispondenza e miscellanea’.
The documentation spans the years from 1804, when P. Roothaan entered the Jesuit novitiate at Daugavpils (Dunaburg) in Latvia, to his death in 1853. It also includes some documents arising from the institutional activity of Roothaan as superior general of the Society of Jesus from 9 July 1829 to his death on 8 May 1853.
The fond includes documents up to 1945 added to the original materials in the course of numerous archival interventions. Thus the fond has the character of a ‘collection’, due to the work of P. Giuseppe Maria Manfredini SJ, personal secretary and biographer of Roothaan. In the second half of the 19 th century Manfredini gathered documents and testimonies to be used in preparing a biography of Roothaan.
Languages of the documents: Italian, Latin, German, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese (one document) and Hebrew (one document).
The fond has been digitized in its entirety.
ARSI acknowledges the generous support of the Father Roothaan Society in undertaking this project.
Vol. I Vita - Scritti filosofici
Vol. II Corrispondenza e miscellanea
Vol. III Indice
Father Thomas McCoog SJ has published a useful book, A Guide to Jesuit Archives (St Louis, MO, 2001), that describes the collections of contemporary Jesuit archives all over the world, and how to contact them.
A Guide to Jesuit Archives
opens up and enhances research opportunities around the world for
historians, linguists, theologians, anthropologists, philosophers,
specialists in the natural and physical sciences, to name but a few
areas in which this book will be of assistance.
The Guide presents data on the official archives of the 90 provinces and
independent regions of the Society of Jesus on every continent as well
as data on the central or Roman Archives of the Society.
In response to a questionnaire of 18 items sent in five
languages--English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish--the archivists
of these collections responded with data on location (address,
telephone fax, e-mail) historical background, conditions of use,
acquisitions policies and a description of the nature and extent of the
archival material in the repositories. All the data in response to
questionnaire are presented in this book in English as well as in the
languages in which the replies were originally sent.
A Guide to Jesuit Archives is the first joint publication of
the Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu (Rome) and the Institute of
Jesuit Sources (St. Louls) and may be obtained from either entity. The
American price is $20 (plus postage) and the European price Euros 22
(plus postage).
IHSI
Borgo S. Spirito, 4
00193 Roma
Italia
The Institute of Jesuit Sources
3700 West Pine Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63108
USA
or through email to [email protected]
The "Jesuit Glossary" by W. Gramatowski is a brief guide to the terms and roles appearing in the historic documents of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) which are conserved in ARSI.
For a synopsis in Latin of the history of the Society of Jesus (1540-1940), and for lists of leading officials (1540-1940), see Synopsis historiae Societatis Iesu (Lovanii, 1950).
For information on Jesuits who died between 1540 and 1640, see:
• Catalogus Pars I Assistentia Italiae et Germaniae cum Gallia usque ad 1607 click here.
• Catalogus Pars II Assistentia Hispaniae Lusitaniae et ab anno 1608 Galliae click here.
• Catalogus addenda et corrigenda click here.
For information on Jesuits who died between 1640 and 1740, see:
• Catalogus 1640-1740 Pars I A-C click here.
• Catalogus 1640-1740 Pars II D-H click here.
• Catalogus 1640-1740 Pars III I-M click here.
• Catalogus 1640-1740 Pars IV N-R click here.
• Catalogus 1640-1740 Pars V S-Z click here.
For information on Jesuits who died between 1740 and 1773 click here.
For the period (1774-1814) click here.
For information on Jesuits who died between 7 Aug. 1814 and 30 Sept. 1970, see on Midwest Jesuit Archive the Catalogus Defunctorum prepared by Fr. Rufo Mendizàbal S.J.
For information on Jesuits who died between 1970 and 1985, see: Catalogus defunctorum in renata Societate Iesu (II) by Fr. Nicolàs R. Veràstegui S.J.
For Argentine Jesuits, Los Jesuitas Argentinos enhances the Catologus Defunctorum.
Los Jesuitas Argentinos (1829-1938) is a collection of short
biographies prepared by Fr. Hugo Storni SJ; it was envisaged as a
continuation of his earlier work, Catalogo de los Jesuitas de la Provincia del Paraguay (Cuenca del Plata) 1585-1768 (Rome, 1980).
Link to PDF