2.3.2. The typology of objects gathered

Ecclesiastical museums preserve what refers to the history and the lifestyle of the Church and the community, even material considered to be of lesser importance. They thus avoid the elimination, putting aside, alienation, and dispersion of objects now no longer in use for liturgical-pastoral services. They allow this material to be protected, preserved and used as the art-historical documentation of the Church's activity in all its different manifestations.

Since we must generally identify some types of artefacts present in ecclesiastical museums, we can first of all discern those with a liturgical or para-liturgical use that can be grouped in several major categories as follows: 

- works of art (paintings, sculptures, decorations, engravings, prints, works in wood or of other material of minor quality);
- sacred vessels;
- furnishings;
- reliquaries and ex voto;
- liturgical vestments, textiles, lace, embroidered fabrics; ecclesiastical dress;
- musical instruments;
- manuscripts and liturgical books, choral books, musical scores, etc: 

To this material, which often constitute the patrimony of ecclesiastical museums, one can often add other objects that usually belong to archives and libraries, as: 

- artistic and/or architectural plans (drawings, models, sketches, maps, etc.);
- documentary material connected to the artefacts (wills, juridical acts, bequests, etc.);
- diaries on works, documentation on collections and on activities inherent to the artistic and historical patrimony, etc.;
- other materials connected in some way to the art-historical patrimony (rules, statutes, registers, etc.) regarding dioceses and parishes, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Confraternities and Pious Works.

Besides this, the ecclesiastical museum must look after the preservation of the memory of those traditions, customs, habits, characteristic of the Church community and civil society, especially in those nations where the conservation of artefacts and documents still does not represent a major task. But besides these typological subdivisions, the ecclesiastical museum is further given the task of demonstrating in a clear manner the "spirit" of the individual works that it preserves and exhibits.

It should not attribute to them only an artistic, historical, anthropological, cultural value but it should show, above all, their spiritual and religious dimension. This dimension points out specifically the identity of those artefacts with a devotional, cultual, charitable function, in order that this may be the perspective with which to understand the will of the donor, the sensitivity of the patron, the ability of the artist to interpret this aspect and the complex significance of the work itself.