Santa Clara University Library Archives & Special Collections is pleased to announce the completion of our newest digital collection, The Nobili Papers. The Nobili Papers digital collection consists of documents from Santa Clara’s first president, Fr. John Nobili, who served from the college’s founding in 1851 to his untimely death from tetanus in 1856. A total of 366 object records are included in the digital collection.
Within these documents are financial records of Mission Santa Clara and Santa Clara College, legal papers, and correspondence with Church and State officials, parents, and merchants. These documents are written in a variety of languages which reflect the diversity of the Santa Clara Valley, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Of special interest are documents related to the Orchard Trial, in which Fr. Nobili and Bishop Alemany sought to establish claim to land formerly held by Mission Santa Clara but occupied by others.
The collection includes information regarding Fr. Nobili’s estate, and how it was handled after his passing. Fr. Nobili left all of his property “of every kind” to the President and Board of Trustees of Santa Clara College.
“My body I bequeath to the Earth from whence it sprung and my soul to God who gave it, and my memory to the Holy Catholic Church in whose commission I hope to life and die.”
Fr. Nobili, Last Will and Testament
Nicholas Congiato, Santa Clara College’s second president, was named as administrator of Nobili’s will. A notice of this action was placed in the San Jose Tribune.
Other documents included in the Nobili Papers provide a peek at who early Santa Clara students were and what their lives were like. The School Commissioners Correspondence, written in December of 1853, describes all pupils as being “under the age of eighteen years and over the age of four.” Fr. Nobili further states that the school is open to “all boys, regardless of religious tenets.” As of 1852, there were fourteen boarders and fifteen day scholars.
In addition to paying tuition to support their studies, boarder students were required to show up with certain supplies, such as clothes and their own pillow. However, some parents seemed to view these necessities as optional–in a draft of a letter written by Fr. Nobili, Nobili scolds a father for abandoning his child at the school with no supplies and no tuition.
Student chores included sweeping the floors, cleaning out chamber pots, and making beds. All students were required to attend church services with no exceptions (although some parents were not fans of this policy). Some students wrote letters describing a pleasant life at the school and talked of studying and playing (however, since letters from younger students were written by the school Fathers, perhaps they shouldn’t always be taken at face value). Other students, like Frank Hutton, didn’t enjoy the school very much. In a letter written to his father, Frank describes being punished by being sent to bed without his full supper (he received some meat and bread, but no soup!).
In addition to Santa Clara College documents, The Nobili Papers include documents related to St. Joseph’s Church (San Jose), Mission Dolores (San Francisco) property, and Mission San Jose. The full digital collection can be found within SCU Digital Collections at https://cdm17268.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/nobilipapers.
Header image: Letter of Administration of the Will of Fr. John Nobili naming Nicholas Congiato as the administrator of Fr. Nobili’s will. Image courtesy of SCU Archives & Special Collections Digital Collections.
Do you have questions or comments about The Nobili Papers or any of our other digital collections? Please feel free to reach out to Summer Shetenhelm, our Digital Collections and Scholarship Librarian.