Jesuit General's Archives Arrive at Georgetown

Fr. Giampaolo Oliva, eleventh general of the Society of Jesus

Just before Thanksgiving, University Archivist Jon Reynolds completed the library's most significant acquisitions of Jesuit records in two decades with the transfer to Georgetown of more than 300 bound volumes of photographic prints of records in the main Jesuit archives in Rome dating from the beginning of the Society to its suppression in 1773. The records were photographed about 1930, and until the transfer this set of prints was in Baltimore in the care of the Maryland Province Archives, most of which have been housed in Lauinger since 1975.

The Roman archives are accompanied by a number of fairly detailed index volumes; these will permit research "the old-fashioned way" until such time as a modern database and finding aid can be put together. The record series for Japan, China, and the Far East is by far the most extensive for any area outside of Italy. The English records (which contain, of course, documents relating to Jesuit activities in colonial Maryland) were made available to Fr. Thomas Hughes during his research for The History of the Society of Jesus in North America (1907-17), but records for a number of other areas offer rich possibilities for research.

The photographic prints, however, constitute little more than the tip of the iceberg in terms of the total holdings of the Roman archives. An earlier transfer brought to Lauinger just over 4,000 spools of negative microfilm reproducing the entirety of the Roman archives from the beginning through about 1945. The film, however, needs extensive work before it can profitably be used by researchers. If an Associate has the ability to make a major contribution toward this end, he or she is urged to talk to Marty Barringer or Susan K. Martin about requirements for the project.