The Roman Catholic Popes Dataset is a structured, open dataset of Roman Catholic popes, canonical pontificates, and antipopes.
The project was created to transform a simple plain-text list into a reusable historical reference dataset suitable for research projects, educational tools, APIs, timelines, and Catholic reference websites.
The dataset separates canonical pope person records, pontificate records, and antipope records so that historically complex cases can be modeled more accurately. This includes handling multiple pontificates for Benedict IX and separating Benedict X into the antipope dataset rather than the canonical succession list.
The dataset currently includes:
- 265 canonical pope person records
- 267 canonical pontificate records
- 41 antipope records
The project also includes JSON, CSV, YAML, and TXT exports, along with JSON Schemas, validation scripts, export tooling, citation metadata, and Zenodo-ready release metadata.
Historical numbering anomalies and succession complexities are documented to help preserve consistency with Annuario Pontificio-style canonical succession treatment.
The Roman Catholic Popes Dataset is released under the Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0) license to encourage reuse in open knowledge, educational, and research projects.
View the dataset on GitHub:
brandonhimpfen