Legends and myths about the order of the Knights Templar, especially after Dan Brown's series of books on the subject, abound - so the relatively recent find of documents shedding light on the trial of the Templars by Pope Clement V has generated a lot of interest by scholars and Templar buffs alike.
The Knights Templar were a military order formed during the early Crusades to protect Christians in the Holy Land. They became very wealthy, owning property all over Europe and the Middle East, financed several wars and also founded a basic banking system across Europe.
The document, known as the Chinon parchment, shows that Pope Clement V found the Templars not guilty of heresy, but guilty of other lesser infractions of Church law. The order of the Templars was nevertheless disbanded as their power and influence across Europe was undeniable and a thorn in many a monarch's side.
The Chinon parchment, which is half a metre wide and two metres long, was recently rediscovered by Barbara Frale, a Vatican historian who works in the Secret Archives. She stumbled across it in a box containing other papers five years ago. While the existence of the document was known it was lost for centuries due to an archiving error.
A reproduction of the Chinon Parchment will be presented to the public on the 25th of October during a press conference of Signum, the publisher of documents from the Vatican's Secret Archives. The "PROCESSUS CONTRA TEMPLARIOS" publication is a limited edition run of just 800 copies of which one is already destined for Pope Benedixt XVI.
It is printed on synthetic parchment, comes complete with a reproduction of the original papal wax seal, and is packaged in a soft leather case together with a scholarly commentary.
The majority of the remaining 799 copies of this limited edition are already reserved by libraries and collectors around the world at a cost of just over 5,900 euros ($8,000; £3,925).
This publication is part of a series from Signum that comes under the name of "Exemplaria Praetiosa", that reproduces documents from the Vatican's secret archives remaining as faithful as possible to the originals. The other publication in the series is a document of 1586 where the Venetian Doge Pasquale Cicogna, Duke of Candia and Rector of Cyprus, in the name of the Venetian Senate offers as a gift to Pope Sisto V the residences of the Gritti family in Venice “in contrata Sanctae Iustinae, penes ecclesiam Sancti Francisci super Campoâ€.
