Central Salesian Archive

The portal of the historical Archive of the Society of St Francis de Sales: the memory of the Salesians, their houses and works at the service of young people and the Church.

Search the catalogue Explore the Classification scheme →

The Central Salesian Archive (ASC) in Rome preserves the significant documentation of the Salesian Congregation, whose Central Headquarters is in Rome, with about ninety decentralised houses worldwide. Through this site, part of the heritage held by the historical Archive is progressively made available in digital form, at the service of the Rector Major, the General Council, scholars and researchers.

The Archive in numbers

258,000+ Catalogued records, mostly paper documents (about 40% correspondence).

~12,000 Archive boxes of stored documentation, plus ~2,000 in the deposit archive.

~1 million Photographs, holy cards and postcards; 230 albums; thousands of glass plates.

4,813 Microfiches: 293,000 digitised frames of the Don Bosco, Don Rua and other fonds.

Explore the portal

The Archive

Historical notes, the archive sections and information on where and who we are.

Search and consultation

How to consult the ASC, the catalogue, the Dublin Core metadata and the microfiches.

Classification scheme

The classification framework of the archival documents, organised in classes from A to X.

Salesian context

Chronology of Don Bosco, the Salesian Society, the Rectors Major and the General Chapters.

Galleries

The ASC photographic album and the 167 photographs by Leonard von Matt on the life of Don Bosco.

Resources

Bibliography, theses and studies and links to libraries, study centres, museums and archives.