Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu

The central archives of the Jesuit Order (ARSI), containing the records of the official business of the Jesuit Generalate in Rome. Materials held by the Vatican Film Library from the ARSI have been copied selectively, comprising only those materials pertaining to Jesuit activities in North and South America and the Philippines down to about 1850 (the most recent documents open to access under the ARSI's one-hundred year restriction at the time when filming was carried out in the 1950s).  A general inventory of the ARSI was composed in 1910 and 1911 and later revised in 1935.  A microfilm copy of this inventory is available for consultation in the Vatican Film Library. The main categories of documents contained in the ARSI include registers of letters from the Generals of the Jesuit Order to the various provinces, a series of catalogues of the provinces giving data on individual Jesuits, annual reports from the provinces, and histories of the missions and provinces.  One group of documents in the ARSI especially helpful to scholars is the "triennial catalogues" of each Jesuit province, so-called because they were compiled every three years and provide much data on individual members of the Order, such as name, place of birth, age, state of health, date of entrance into the Order, date of religious profession or vows, studies made and academic degrees obtained, and work done or positions held in the Order.  Another helpful group of documents is the Annual Letters (Litterae annuae) which are annual records of chief events in the provinces.  The structure of the ARSI laid out here follows that given by Teschitel. For further discussion of the arrangement of this archive and its materials, see:

• Joseph Teschitel, "Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI)," Archivum 4 (1954): 145-152
• Francis Bannon, "The St. Louis University Collection of Jesuitica Americana," The Hispanic American Historical Review 37 (1957): 82-88
• Ernest J. Burrus, S.J., "Mexican Historical Documents in the Central Jesuit Archives," Manuscripta 12 (1968): 13-61
• José Jesús Hernández Palomo, "Las Cartas anuas del Peru en el Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu: Valoracion y catalogo (1603-1765)," Supplemento de anuario de estudios americanos, sección historiografia y bibliografia 48, no. 2 (1991): 27-73

 

I. ARCHIVUM ANTIQUAE SOCIETATIS (USQUE AD ANNUM 1773)

A) Assistentiae et Provinciae

Assistentia Lusitaniae

Assistentia Hispaniae

Assistentia Galliae

Assistentia Germaniae

B) Totius Societatis

II. ARCHIVUM RESTITUATE SOCIETATIS (AB ANNO 1814)

Assistentia Americae (Septentrionalis)

Assistentia Americae Latinae