NEW LIGHT THROWN ON HISTORY

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

NEW LIGHT THROWN ON HISTORY

Famous Archives Will Clear Up Many Mysteries SECRET RECORD OF A POPE’S REIGN MANY mysteries of history, it is expected, will be cleared up by the archives of the great Italian house of Caetani, which have been lent in perpetuity to the Vatican Library. During the centuries of their domination as the most powerful feudal lords of Southern Italy, the Caetanis played their part in war and diplomacy, as well as in the Church. Their confidential reports on historical events have been jealously guarded in the ducal palace in Rome by their contemporaries and descendants until to-day. Don Gelasio Caetani, who died not long ago, had spent his leisure in listing the collection, which covers from 954 A.D. until 1832. His personal library of 8,000 volumes is to be added. The collection includes 4600 parchment documents, 2000 registers of historical and literary manuscripts,- and 200,000 letters and despatches covering the history of Europe for nearly 10 centu'ries. Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, Kings of England and France in the Middle Ages, all find a place in the documents. Henry 111. and Edward I, the rebellious Gloucester who armed against Henry 111, are among the earliest personalities mentioned and commented upon by Pope Boniface VIII, who was a Caetani. As a young man, but already a priest, he was besieged in London by Gloucester. Some of the documents are understood to give an account of his adventures in England. The secret history of the Pope’s reign, his quarrels with France and other States, Dante’s mission to Rome, his opinion of the Caetanis, are all recorded.

Gregorovlus, the German historian, who was the first man outside the Caetani family to gain access to the documents, said: “When these documents are published the history of Rome and Naples will have to be rewritten.”