Rome, Jul 6 (IANS/AKI): Documents on the 17th century trial of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and and Britain's 16th century monarch King Henry XIII will now be exhibited outside the Vatican for the first time.

The exhibition marking the Vatican Secret Archive's 400th anniversary will showcase around 100 documents at Rome's Capitoline Museum from February next year.

The show titled "Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed" will run till September.

"The inherent richness of this exhibition is amplified by the fact that it is being organised outside the Vatican, on the Capitol Hill which symbolically represents the heart of Rome and its relationship with the papal city down the centuries," said Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Secretary Tarcisio Bertone.

The exhibit will include documents from World War II-era pontiff Pope Pius XII.

The archive was founded in the early 17th century and contains 84 km of shelves holding papal correspondence, state papers, books and records of ancient Christianity.