Portrait of Mons. Giuseppe Garampi, Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives from 1751 to 1772; in addition to this appointment, from 1759 he was also the Prefect of the Archives of Castel S. Angelo

   Giuseppe Garampi was born in Rimini in 1725, second-born son of Count Lorenzo and Diamante Belmonti. In 1746, he embarked on the ecclesiastic career and went to Rome where he studied and was ordained priest in 1749. He was still very young when he met a group of scholars followers of Mabillon’s and Muratori’s methods of historical criticism, he studied law and ecclesiastic history and  soon become a member of the Academy of Ecclesiastic History. Benedict XIV, who esteemed him, appointed him coadjutor, with the right to succeed the then Prefect of the Vatican Archives Filippo Ronconi. In 1751, when Ronconi died, he became Prefect in his place at a very young age; in 1752, he was appointed Prefect of the Archives of St. Peter’s Basilica and, in 1759, Prefect of the Archives of Castel S. Angelo. Between 1761 and 1764, as well as being Archivist of the Holy See, Clement XIII entrusted him many missions in Central and Northern Europe that allowed him to acquire a vast diplomatic experience, culminating with the nomination as Secretary of the Cipher in 1766. He took advantage of his travels to keep in contact with European scholars and visit archives and libraries around the Continent.

    In the over twenty years of prefecture of the Archives of the Holy See, he worked on the reunification of the Vatican Archives, as well as on the patrimony of documents and produced indexes and inventories.  Always in these years, he wrote his main historical works (from the Memorie ecclesiastiche appartenenti all’istoria e al culto della b. Chiara da Rimini ai Saggi di osservazione sul valore delle antiche monete pontificie).

    In 1772, Clement XIV preconized him Titular Bishop of Beirut and appointed him Nuncio in Warsaw; in 1776, he was appointed Nuncio in Vienna and Bishop of Montefiascone and Corneto. In  1785, he was created Cardinal and returned to Rome and to his diocese. He died in Rome in 1792 and was buried in the Church of Saint John and Paul, of which he was the titular.

    He was an erudite bibliophile who gathered an impressive collection of manuscripts and incunabula, partially transferred after his death to the Gambalunga Library of Rimini; he provided the seminary of his diocese with a large library furnished with 30.000 volumes and gathered a personal library consisting of nearly 40.000 volumes, sold after his death (the Vatican Secret Archives have the five-volume catalogue of the bookseller De Romanis). Its papers constitute three separate fonds of the Vatican Secret Archives (Collectanea-Miscellanea Garampi; Fondo Garampi; Collezione Garampi).

Schedario Garampi being consulted in the Leo XIII room of the Vatican Secret Archives