Our research

The SCC Explorer Platform: an interactive integrated web platform and an ongoing project

Benedetta Albani

The SCC Explorer Platform is an interactive integrated web platform dedicated to the history of the Congregation of the Council, the SCC. Our research project is the first to systematically apply digital analysis and visualization methods to an organ of the Roman Curia over a long period of time, namely between 1564 and the XX Century. The project is the result of many years of research conducted by our Research Group on the dicastery and on several related topics. The SCC Explorer Platform is constantly evolving, is articulated in different projects and gives access to various resources. The projects are designed to explore specific aspects of the history of the Congregation of the Council, while the resources offer reflections and technical tools that can also be applied to other areas of knowledge. On this page you will find information on our scientific and methodological approach to the study of SCC, the objectives and aims of the platform, our working method and the technical realisation of the different apps. You will also be able to access a description of the articulation of the platform in which some future developments of the projects are also described. Specific information on the research methodology developed, the formation of the specific datasets used and the specific data visualisation and analysis strategies can be found on the individual project pages. In the "Results" section on the individual project pages, we present some of the research results achieved until now.

The SCC Explorer Platform is also a collaborative work made possible by the interdisciplinary expertise developed within the Research Group in continuous communication with the academic community. For more information on the use of data and contents, please consult the pages Licensing of the Data and Licensing of the Site Content. The SCC Explorer Platform is a constantly evolving project. Our published datasets are frequently checked, corrected, revised and enriched with new details. New data are continuously processed and made available through the platform. This is also a collaborative work, made possible by the interdisciplinary expertise developed within the research team in continuous communication with the academic community. In this context, the collaboration of users is particularly enriching for us because it allows us to work on our data and the correspondingvisualisation by taking advantage of criticisms and corrections pointed out by those who, like us, carry out daily research on the Congregation of the Council or more generally on the history of the Papacy and the Roman Curia. We therefore invite visitors to let us know of any errors or inaccuracies in the platform, to inform us of any alternative interpretations of the data, and to suggest changes and enhancements to the platform and its various projects and resources. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on the use of the platform and the data published in it or for any scientific collaboration. We will be grateful for your contribution and help to improve the platform!

New Research Questions and an Innovative Methodological Approach

Despite the long tradition of studies on the Roman Curia, the SCC has been rather neglected by scholars. Research has traditionally focused on isolated, mostly formal aspects, and without a proper use of sources. Some researchers haveindeed used the very rich archives of the congregation, but only to obtain information and data from the perspective of local history. Our group, on the other hand, has tried to develop new intellectual questions and an innovative methodological approach to study this dicastery in an integrated way by bringing together the specific competences and traditions of three disciplines: history, legal history, and archival management. This has also required the creation of digital tools for data visualisation and organisation. We believe that our research brings a new way of looking at the Congregation of the Council, which can be summarised in three main points.

First, we consider necessary to view the the SCC as part of an organic administrative whole - the Roman Curia - and, above all, as a body with global reach, which influenced ecclesiastical institutions around the world directly (by responding to requests and reports from bishops, parish priests, religious orders, nuncios, lay people, etc.) and indirectly (via its collections of jurisprudence).

Secondly, we insist on the importance of analysing the interactions between the SCC and a wide range of actors, which our sources show to be very active. Our cases range from disputes between neighbouring convents over the excessive noise of their respective bells to matrimonial matters of the most important European royal houses; from the practice of the sacraments in America, Asia and Eastern Europe to questions of ceremonial and precedence within the Roman Curia itself. It is also important to mention that nation-states were not indifferent to the dicastery, especially those with regimes of church patronage. This shows how the legal history of states is intertwined with the legal history of the Church.

Our approach, finally, offers the possibility of capturing the modulations of the Council of Trent within the decisions of the Congregation of the Council in the longue durée, highlighting the strong dialectical relationship between general norms and particular cases in canon law. Indeed, the analysis of the activity of the Congregation of the Council allows us to perceive the richness of post-Tridentine canon law: there was indeed a centralisation of competences, but this did not imply a frozen uniformity in the interpretation and execution of the law; there was room for novelty, for creativity and, above all, for the translation of canon law according to local needs and practices.

In terms of methodological approach, the very structure of the Research Group fosters a strong collaboration and a continuous cultural exchange among its members. This results in innovative and functional methodological choices and approaches to the study of the SCC. Visit the About us page for more information on the members of the research team, their complementary skills and their contribution to this project. In this sense, our research allows us to offer a methodological contribution to the study of the SCC and, more generally, to research on the functioning of the Roman Curia.

From our perspective, it is necessary to approach the study of the SCC in both the local and the Roman dimension. This means the need to use and compare the sources of the papal archives with those of the local archives. And this allows us to avoid a distorted and unbalanced approach, which focuses exclusively on central or local dynamics. Contrary to what one might think, this approach is still in the minority in the tradition of studies on the Roman Curia. Besides, the legal, historical, diplomatic and palaeographical knowledge developed by the group allows us to penetrate the complex meanderings of the SCC as anadministrative body and, thus, understand some important patterns behind its functioning.