Archive Proximity

[Mark Knowles]

I would be, although I am visiting Italy (Torino) for only a few days in late April/early May. I would be open to more long term research, and I do have a place to stay, but am currently unemployed.

There may be something of interest in the Turin archives. Not so much survives from the Duchy of Savoy and so the prospect of finding ciphers is not great I fear. The Duke of Savoy was Amadeus VIII, who was also known as the Antipope Felix V. There are some documents of Felix V in the Vatican archives, so I would be tempted to search those for ciphers as I already know the cipher ledger and some enciphered letters of one of the Avignon Antipopes survive in the Vatican archives. Also Felix V lived near Geneva, I believe. Nevertheless, Turin is main archive for documents from the Duchy of Savoy. The first archive to consider would be the Archivio di Stato di Torino. However, I am aware of there being late 15th Milanese enciphered letters in the Archivio Storico della Città di Torino.

However, there may be something worth searching for in the Turin archives or indeed in archives near Turin. You might want to peruse the inventories for the various Turin archives to see if you find a reference to documents worth searching through.