History of the Papacy and the Popes: Creation of a "Permanent Seminar"

The journal Archivum Historiae Pontificiae has inaugurated a Permanent Seminar on the History of the Papacy and the Popes. Its purpose is to provide the academic community with a forum for encounter and debate. The monthly seminars have involved, and will continue to involve, distinguished scholars and young researchers who are presently in Rome for their scholarly research at the city’s National Research Institutes.

“For the past sixty years, the Archivum Historiae Pontificiae has been devoted to the history of the Papacy and the Popes,” said Father Roberto Regoli, editor-in-chief of the journal and director of the Gregoriana’s Department of History of the Church, at the inauguration of the initiative. “Since its foundation, Archivum has devoted special attention to the Papacy and the Popes as a historical lens, in recognition of their great importance for the knowledge of history in general. While the initial focus was on ecclesiological and socio-political aspects, in the last decade the journal has broadened its horizons to include historical-artistic and archaeological dimensions. Today, the magazine adds to its initiatives a Permanent seminar on the History of the Papacy and the Popes, namely, a forum for seminars, book presentations and roundtable discussions that will foster relationships between experts in this field and will be livestreamed for wide dissemination. The initiative is addressed to all those who, in the various areas of historical and archaeological research, devote themselves to the study of the Papacy and the city of Rome over a wide chronological span, from Antiquity to the present day.”

 

 

The Papacy as a vantage point

The Archivum Historiae Pontificiae is the only international journal dedicated to the history of the papacy in its historical, cultural and artistic dimensions. Until the 1980s, it played an important role in the research into the history of the Popes and the Papacy, contributing to a historiographical debate that was very open and receptive to new historiographical developments. The creation of a Permanent Seminar on the History of the Papacy and the Popes aims to revive its role in the historiographical debate, proposing the Department of History of the Church of the Gregorian University as a prestigious interlocutor. It also draws on the uniqueness of the Pontifical Gregorian University and its role in the structural framework of the Church: a supranational dimension that enables it to be a bridge of encounter between historiographies. 

For sixty years Archivum has offered a broad chronological horizon and a clear historiographical perspective: the papacy from antiquity to the present day, encompassing a wide range of topics (from the liturgical dimension to canon law, from social history to economic history). The decision of the Permanent Seminar to include research on the entire history of the Papacy reflects the fact that the latter remains a valuable point of reference for historical research. It cannot be denied that the Papacy has been and remains at the centre of dynamics that transcend the religious dimension alone, and that its extensive history is marked by numerous interrelated, multifaceted aspects. Moreover, the dimension of supranationality is inherent in the institution of the Papacy itself, and thus a historiographical approach that starts from the Papacy and analyses the history of an epoch is a successful approach that keeps pace with the most recent historiographical innovations. 

 

 

A platform to explore new historiographic paths

The Permanent Seminar will host a monthly lecture by an established scholar (university professor) or a young researcher (post-doc with a letter of introduction from the research institute hosting him/her in Rome for scientific research purposes) to explore new historiographic paths in the history of the Papacy and the Popes. In fact, the dimension of the Papacy as an institution includes the history of the Popes as persons fulfilling a function, without neglecting the individual dimension. No less important is the fact that Archivum is an expression of the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Church, which therefore includes the documentary and historical monumental structure of Rome, the history of the Church in this city, and the beautiful and complex dimension of universality that lives on to the present day. 

The recognised languages are those normally used for research (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian), preferably with a lecture in Italian followed by a debate in the mother tongue of the speaker. This, too, is a way of putting into practice the international dimension that the Gregorian University - Universitas omnium Nationum - has experienced since its foundation. Indeed, the history of the Papacy is now the object of research for historians all over the world.

The most important contributions will be published in the journal Archivum Historiae Pontificiae. This initiative is also in line with the journal’s founding objectives, which we hope will lead to the creation of a network of exchanges between universities at global level.