Lux in Arcana – Shedding Light on Vatican Secrets

 Lux in Arcana – Shedding Light on Vatican Secrets 

In an unprecedented cultural event, 100 documents from the Secret Archives of the Vatican have been made available for public viewing at Rome’s Capitoline Museum, until September 2012. Manuscripts, parchment scrolls, coded messages, spanning 12 centuries, by notable authors including Marie Antoinette, Martin Luther, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michelangelo, as well as the American President, who personally closed his letter to the pope with a warm “Your Good Friend, Abraham Lincoln”.

This illuminating trip through history includes the interrogation and trial of Galileo Galilei, as well as the act of condemnation of order of the Templar Knights. The handwritten letter by British Lords asking the pope to dissolve the marriage of Henry VIII, as well as the edict of Pope Alexander VI n 1493 which speaks of the noble and dangerous mission of Cristofus Colon (Christopher Columbus) in his quest for new worlds make history come alive. This exhibition is an amazing encounter with many of the “super stars and heroes” of their times, who through their written correspondence, still convey some very strong emotions.