After the move of the papal curia from Rome to Avignon, the sojourn of the popes in the Provencal citadel gradually acquired the features of a perma-nent stay: the Pontiffs attempted to transform Avignon into a second Rome, importing the sym-bols of papal Rome and building a magnificent pontifical palace.Vast archival collections preserved in theVatican Archives, such as the RegistraVaticana and Avenionensia, testify to the founding of a modern, centralized, and efficient bureaucratic machinery, which established the basis for the early-modern developments of the Apostolic Curia. 1 Whilst the feeling of remoteness of the Church from its natural seat, Rome, prompted negative characterizations – demonstrated by fig