Seal collection exposed in the noble salon of secret archives. (Collection de sceaux )Vatican has the richest seal collection in the world. The sovereign monarchs of yesteryear made extensive efforts to imagine extraordinary seals in order to impress the popes. The Vatican Secret Archives (Archives secretes du Vatican - Archivio Segreto Vaticano) is the central repository in the Vatican City for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The archives also contain the state papers; correspondence; papal account books and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. More than 1000 years of history on 85 km of shelving. The papal archives has served the Holy See for 400 years and is one of the most important and renowned research centres in the world. Ii is a treasure trove of peerless precious documents: millions of papers and parchments that can be accessed by scholars of all nationalities and all faiths.- Vatican Secret Archives (1999)