16-03-2023, 07:51 PM
Helmut, unfortunately, often in my experience inventories are very incomplete. If I know precisely where documents are in archives either as they have been referred to elsewhere or as they are listed in an inventory and they are of interest to me then I will normally request photoreproductions from the archives. If the presence or locations of documents is uncertain then I have to visit archives. This is particularly true with locating enciphered letters as they are often not listed elsewhere. One has to get special permission to visit the Vatican archives, other archives are less restrictive in their criteria I think.