German association Freunde des Vatikanischen Geheimarchivs e V.
The association of the Friends of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Freunde des Vatikanischen Geheimarchivs e. V.) was founded in Germany in 1988, in the dioceses of Bamberg, with the aim of providing financial support in carrying out some projects to safeguard and restore the documents kept in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. In the last twenty years, this well-deserving association has helped pay the expenses to microfilm the Registri Vatican and the Registri delle Suppliche; it has also offered contributions for the exceptional restoration of some badly damaged ancient volumes of the Archives.
In 1998, for its first decade of life, the Association financed the purchase of the English machine Kasemake 503 A, to create boxes according to the typology and the size of the documents kept in the Archives with materials that allow a proper preservation. This purchase is part of a complex programme of preservation of the precious material of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, that includes a project for the creation of suitable coverings to protect the archival pieces. The project gave life to a specialized Laboratory depending from the Laboratory of Preservation, Bookbindery and Restoration, and which included the training of specialised staff.
In the following years, the Association has contributed to the purchase of some digital machines to digitalize and safeguard parchment documents. The Association is currently financing the annual work of an archivist who is arranging one of the fonds of the Archives.