Conventual documentary heritage
The current convent archive represents and is the result of the commitment of the community of the Servants of Mary of Monte Berico to restore continuity to the thread of memory interrupted by the devolution of the ancient collection in the early 19th century, which is now housed at the State Archive of Vicenza.
Some original documents from the first four centuries of religious presence at Monte Berico are still preserved in the convent. Among these, two papal bulls from Pope Eugene IV dated 1435 and 1443, and the public instrument of 1435, with an attached part of the seal, are noteworthy. This document granted the church and convent to the Servants of Mary by the Municipality of Vicenza.
Vicentine conventual memory
Particular interest is raised by the Vicentini collection, inventoried analytically, which includes a compilation of original ancient documents related to the Servants of Mary convents in Venice and the Veneto region, along with transcriptions.
Since 1835, the year of the community’s reconstitution after the Napoleonic suppression, the preserved documentation has been complete and amounts to approximately 700 archival units. The archive also houses documents of deceased friars from the convent who passed away before the reconstitution of the Venetian Province (1922).
