L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano S aint Peter's is R o m e a n d Rome is Saint Peter's: the con- nection between the city and the most famous church in Italy is so deeply rooted we tend to forget that, technically, the basilica and its cupolone are not in Rome and not even in Italy, for that matter, because the Vatican is an independent entity. The small city-state was created, in the form we know t o d a y , i n 1 9 2 9 w i t h t h e L a t e r a n T r e a t y , b u t a s P a p a l S t a t e s ( o r S t a t o P o n t i f i c i o , a s w e r e a d o n I t a l i a n h i s t o r y b o o k s ) , i t m a d e t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e peninsula for over a millen- nium. With its 618 citizens and 0.44 square km exten- sion, it is the smallest sove- reign state in the world. If you've been to Rome, you've b e e n t o t h e C i t t à d e l Vaticano, of course: it's an almost compulsory stop, one of the most characteristic, beautiful and historically relevant parts of the capital. Yet, not many can say to know the Vatican for real, as i t r e m a i n s , u n d e r m a n y points of view, one of the most mysterious and secreti- ve places on Earth, so much so there are, in fact, a whole lot of conspiracy theories out there about its role in many a pivotal moment of Italian and world history. But even without conside- r i n g t h o s e , t h e a u r a o f secrecy around il Vaticano r e m a i n s s t r o n g , a s y o u ' d expect for one of the oldest p o l i t i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n s o n Earth. This brings me strai- ght into one of what many consider a real "mystery" of t h e V a t i c a n : i t s S e c r e t A r c h i v e s . T h e A r c h i v i o Segreto Vaticano (today k n o w n a s t h e A r c h i v i o Apostolico Vaticano) is the Vatican national archive a n d i t i s c o n s i d e r e d t h e vastest collection of national a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l d o c u - ments on Earth. Since its political creation, in the mid 8 t h c e n t u r y , T h e V a t i c a n kept track uninterruptedly of its relations with all cultural a n d p o l i t i c a l p l a y e r s i n h i s t o r y : f r o m d i p l o m a t i c documents and state papers, all the way to corresponden- ce and books, the Archive — which was officially founded in 1612 — is an incredibly rich source for historians and philologists from all over t h e w o r l d . F o r c e n t u r i e s , access to the Archive was incredibly limited and scho- lars from outside the Vatican could not consult its docu- ments. Things changed in the late 19th century, when Pope Leo XIII finally ope- n e d i t t o o u t s i d e r e s e a r - chers, and today about 1000 scholars from all over the world can access every year its wealth of documents and books. The aura of secrecy around the Archive was cer- tainly associated to the fact that, for centuries, access w a s n ' t a l l o w e d t o p e o p l e external to the Church and its former name, Archivio Segreto, didn't help: if it's secret, it means it contains something the Vatican doe- sn't want us to see, right? Wrong, because the Latin word secretum — let's not forget Latin is the official l a n g u a g e o f t h e V a t i c a n : more of it in a second— doe- sn't really mean "secret" as u n d e r s t o o d i n m o d e r n I t a l i a n a n d E n g l i s h , b u t rather "private." This makes perfect sense because, when the Archive became autono- m o u s f r o m t h e V a t i c a n Library, it was supposed to contain the Pope's private documents. It was to finally get rid of the quid pro quo that Pope Francis eventually c h a n g e d i t s n a m e i n l a t e 2019. From the Vatican's archi- ves to the Vatican's langua- g e s , t h e s t e p i s s h o r t . Enclosed as it is within Italy, it is common knowledge that Italian is spoken and used everywhere in the Vatican. Officially, however, its main language is … L a t i n . We need to make some clarity here, though. Italian is the official language of the Stato del Vaticano, which means it is the language spoken there, but Latin is the language of the Holy See, that is, of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of R o m e , a k a t h e P o p e . Basically, the Holy See inclu- des but is not limited to the Vatican State, because the Pope is not only its leader, but also the leader of the Catholic Church. So, Latin is, in fact, the official language of the Catholic Church and this is why all its documents are redacted in Latin. Without a doubt, the most recognizable feature of the Vatican is Saint Peter's Basilica, with its colonnade a n d c u p o l a . W h i l e w e a l l k n o w i t w a s b u i l t w h e r e , according to tradition, Saint P e t e r w a s c r u c i f i e d n o t many are aware of what was there before the basilica. Needless to say, when the first bishop of Rome met his fate, in 64 AD, there was no church in sight. The Vatican ager, the alluvial plain on the right bank of the Tiber, was known, back then, for A g r i p p i n a ' s h o r t i — h e r s u b u r b a n r e s i d e n c e , Emperor Nero (Agrippina's s o n ) c i r c u s , a n d f o r t h e E g y p t i a n o b e l i s k c a r r i e d back to Rome in 30 AD by Augustus. Indeed, it is belie- ved that Peter was killed just beside the obelisk, which wasn't were we see it today, at the centre of the square. It was, in fact, moved there only in 1586, under the rule of Pope Sixtus V. The first church was built under the rule of Constatine the Great between 319 and 333 AD: up to then, only a small shrine in memory of Saint Peter's martyrdom was present. As all sovereign states, also the Vatican has its own army, the Swiss Guards. They have been serving the Pope since 1506 and there are, still today, strict rules to follow if you want to become one: to begin with, you need to be a Catholic and a citizen of Switzerland; you have to be aged between 18 and 30 and have served in the regu- lar Swiss Army. Curiously, you're also required to be unmarried, at least until the age of 25, after having served for at least three years and having reached the grade of corporal. However, when you do finally get to marry your beloved, you may get a pleasant surprise, as it hap- pened a couple of years ago to Luca Schafer, member of the Swiss Guards, and his fiancée Leticia: instead of the priest they had chosen to celebrate the wedding, they found Pope Francis waiting for them at the altar. Now, that's something that can happen only in the Vatican! GIULIA FRANCESCHINI The iconic staircase of the Vatican Museums (Photo. Andreea Dobrescu/Dreamstime) HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS The smallest, but the richest in history: secrets and curiosities of the Vatican State

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