ANNALES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ SCIENTIFIQUE
Periodical published in Louvain by the “Société scientifique” of Brussels, founded in 1875 with the aim of promoting the development and diffusion of the sciences by practically demonstrating that there is no disagreement between the religious and the scientific spirit. Since 1937 the Annales have been issued in three series, covering the mathematical sciences, the natural and medical sciences, and the economic sciences.
ANNALES DE L’ASSOCIATION DE LA PROPAGATION DE LA FOI
Official organ of this Association, which later became the Pontifical Work of the Propagation of the Faith (v.). Begun in Lyons and Paris in 1824, continuing the notebooks of the Association which had been published since 1822, it became a bimonthly in 1840, and subsequently the numbering of the volumes corresponded to the years. Although presented as a continuation of the famous Lettres édifiantes, the Annales are far more universal than that collection; besides the communications of the Association, they contain letters and documents from every missionary Order and mission country, thus constituting a primary source for the history of Catholic apostolate in the last century in Europe and on other continents. In 1931 the periodical changed its title to Annales de la Propagation de la Foi et de s. Pierre Apôtre, beginning to publish news also about this latter work. At present it has lost its original value.
The Annales achieved wide circulation, with more or less complete and adapted versions in almost all European languages, printed in various countries. Against the wish of the central council in Lyons, not all versions were exactly faithful to the original French edition; the Munich version, for example, added reports from German missionaries, thus informing, among other things, about the development of Catholic activity in the United States of America. The origin of some translations has not yet been determined, such as that of the first German edition (perhaps that of Einsiedeln, not that of Strasbourg). The Italian edition appeared from 1828 in Lyons, in close dependence on the original French. Although in 1839 vol. IV of the reprint declared it the only recognized one, rejecting every other Italian version, extracts were published in Naples, which later became more complete.