TheVatican Apostolic Library (Latin:Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana,Italian:Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as theVatican Library or informally as theVat,[1] is thelibrary of theHoly See, located inVatican City, and is the city-state'snational library. It was formally established byPope Sixtus IV on June 15, 1475, by the papal bullAd decorem militantis ecclesiae[2], although it is much older. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. It has 75,000codices from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500incunabula.[3]
The Vatican Library is aresearch library forhistory,law,philosophy,science, andtheology. The Vatican Library is open to anyone who can document their qualifications and research needs. Photocopies for private study of pages from books published between 1801 and 1990 can be requested in person or by mail.
Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) envisioned a new Rome, with extensive public works to lure pilgrims and scholars to the city to begin its transformation. Nicolas wanted to create a "public library" for Rome that was meant to be seen as an institution for humanist scholarship. His death prevented him from carrying out his plan, but his successorPope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) established what is now known as the Vatican Library.
In March 2014, the Vatican Library began an initial four-year project ofdigitising its collection of manuscripts, to be made available online.
TheVatican Apostolic Archive was separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century; it contains another 150,000 items.
The Pre-Lateran period, comprising the initial days of the library, dating from the earliest days of theChurch. Only a handful of volumes survive from this period, though some are very significant.
The Lateran era began when the library moved to theLateran Palace and lasted until the end of the 13th century and the reign ofPope Boniface VIII, who died in 1303, by which time he possessed one of the most notable collections ofilluminated manuscripts in Europe. However, in that year, the Lateran Palace was burnt and the collection plundered byPhilip IV of France.[5]
The Avignon period was during theAvignon Papacy, when seven successive popes resided inAvignon,France. This period saw great growth in book collection and record-keeping by the popes in Avignon, between the death of Boniface and the 1370s when the papacy returned toRome.
The Pre-Vatican period ranged from about 1370 to 1447. The library was scattered during this time, with parts in Rome, Avignon, and elsewhere. Pope Eugenius IV possessed 340 books by the time of his death.[6]
In 1451,bibliophilePope Nicholas V sought to establish a public library at the Vatican, in part to re-establish Rome as a destination for scholarship.[7][8] Nicholas combined some 350 Greek, Latin and Hebrew codices inherited from his predecessors with his own collection and extensive acquisitions, among them manuscripts from the imperialLibrary of Constantinople. Pope Nicholas also expanded his collection by employing Italian and Byzantine scholars to translate theGreek classics into Latin for his library.[8] The knowledgeable pope already encouraged the inclusion ofpagan classics.[1] Nicolas was important in saving many of the Greek works and writings during this time period that he had collected while traveling and acquired from others.
In 1455, the collection had grown to 1200 books, of which 400 were in Greek.[9]
Nicholas died in 1455. In 1475 his successorPope Sixtus IV founded thePalatine Library.[8] During his papacy, acquisitions were made in "theology, philosophy and artistic literature".[5] The number ofmanuscripts is variously counted as 3,500 in 1475[5] or 2,527 in 1481, whenlibrariansBartolomeo Platina and Pietro Demetrio Guazzelli produced a signed listing.[10][11][12] At the time it was the largest collection of books in the Western world.[9]
Pope Julius II commissioned the expansion of the building.[8] Around 1587,Pope Sixtus V commissioned the architectDomenico Fontana to construct a new building for the library, which is still used today. After this, it became known as the Vatican Library.[8]
During theCounter-Reformation, access to the library's collections was limited following the introduction of theIndex of banned books. Scholars' access to the library was restricted, particularlyProtestant scholars. Restrictions were lifted during the course of the 17th century, andPope Leo XIII was to formally reopen the library to scholars in 1883.[7][8]
In 1756, the priestAntonio Piaggio, curator of ancient manuscripts at the Library used a machine he had invented[13] to unroll the firstHerculaneum papyri, an operation which took him months.[14]
In 1809,Napoleon Bonaparte arrestedPope Pius VII and had the contents of the library seized and removed toParis. They were returned in 1817, three years after Napoleon's defeat and abdication.[8]
The library's first major revitalization project took place in the period between the two World Wars at the instigation ofPope Pius XI, himself a scholar and former librarian, with the cooperation of librarians from around the world. Until this point in time, while it had drawn on the expertise of numerous experts, the Vatican Library was dangerously lacking in organization and its junior librarians were undertrained.[15] Foreign researchers, particularly Americans, noticed how inadequate the facilities were for such an important collection. Several American organizations, including theAmerican Library Association and theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace, offered to assist in implementing a modern cataloguing system.[16] Along with this, librarians from the Vatican Library were invited to visit several libraries in the United States to receive training on the functioning of a modern library. They visited theLibrary of Congress, and libraries in Princeton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Chicago, Champaign, Toronto, and Ann Arbor. Once back in Rome, a reorganization plan was implemented. The main goals were to create a summary index by author of each manuscript, and likewise a catalogue for the incunabula. Once the project was completed, the Vatican Library was one of the most modern in all of Europe. This joint effort highlighted the importance of international relationships in the field of librarianship and led to the founding in 1929 of theInternational Federation of Library Associations, still at work.[15]
In 1992 the library had almost 2 millioncatalogued items.[7]
Among a number of thefts from the Library committed in modern times, in 1995 art history teacher Anthony Melnikas fromOhio State University stole threeleaves from a medieval manuscript once owned byFrancesco Petrarch.[17][18] One of the stolen leaves contains an exquisite miniature of a farmer threshing grain. A fourth leaf from an unknown source was also discovered in his possession by U.S. Customs agents. Melnikas was trying to sell the pages to an art dealer, who then alerted the library director.[18]
Ancient Roman sculpture, maybe ofSaint Hippolytus of Rome, found in 1551 at Via Tiburtina, Rome, and now at the Vatican Library
The library is located inside theVatican Palace, and the entrance is through theBelvedere Courtyard.[19] WhenPope Sixtus V (1585–1590) commissioned the expansion and the new building of the Vatican Library, he had a three-story wing built right across Bramante's Cortile del Belvedere, thus bisecting it and changing Bramante's work significantly.[1] At the bottom of a grand staircase a large statue ofHippolytus decorates the La Galea entrance hall.[20]
In the first semi-basement there is apapyrus room and a storage area for manuscripts.[20] The first floor houses therestoration laboratory, and the photographic archives are on the second floor.[20]
The library has 42 kilometres (26 mi) of shelving.[21]
The library closed for renovations on 17 July 2007[22] and reopened on 20 September 2010.[23] The three-year, 9 million euro renovation involved the complete shut down of the library to install climate controlled rooms.[24]
The collection was originally organized through notebooks used to index the manuscripts. As the collection grew to more than a few thousand, shelf lists were used.[8] The first modern catalogue system was put in place under FatherFranz Ehrle between 1927 and 1939, using theLibrary of Congresscard catalogue system. Ehrle also set up the first program to take photographs of important works or rare works.[8] The library catalogue was further updated by Rev.Leonard E. Boyle when it was computerized in the early 1990s.[8]
Historically, during theRenaissance era, most books were not shelved but stored in wooden benches, which had tables attached to them. Each bench was dedicated to a specific topic. The books werechained to these benches, and if a reader took out a book, the chain remained attached to it. Until the early 17th century, academics were also allowed to borrow books. For important books, the pope himself would issue a reminder slip.[8] Privileges to use the library could be withdrawn for breaking the house rules, for instance by climbing over the tables. Most famouslyPico Della Mirandola lost the right to use the library when he published a book on theology that thePapal curia did not approve of.[27] In the 1760s, a bill issued byClement XIII heavily restricted access to the library's holdings.[1]
The Vatican Library can be accessed by 200 scholars at a time,[28] and it sees 4,000 to 5,000 scholars a year, mostly academics doingpost-graduate research.[24]
A miniature from the Syriac Gospel Lectionary (Vat. Syr. 559), createdc. 1220 nearMosul and exhibiting a strong Islamic influence
While the Vatican Library has always included Bibles, canon law texts, and theological works, it specialized from the beginning in secular books. Its collection of Greek and Latin classics was at the center of the revival of classical culture during theRenaissance.[9] The oldest documents in the library date back to the first century.[21]
The library was founded primarily as a manuscript library, a fact reflected in the comparatively high ratio of manuscripts to printed works in its collection. Such printed books as have made their way into the collection are intended solely to facilitate the study of the much larger collection of manuscripts.[29]
The collection also includes 330,000 Greek, Roman, and papal coins and medals.[7]
The library was enriched by several bequests and acquisitions over the centuries.
In 1623, in thanks for the adroit political maneuvers ofPope Gregory XV that had sustained him in his contests with Protestant candidates for the post ofElector, the hereditaryPalatine Library ofHeidelberg, containing about 3,500 manuscripts, was given to theHoly See byMaximilian I, Duke of Bavaria. He had just acquired it as loot in theThirty Years' War. A token 39 of the Heidelberg manuscripts were sent toParis in 1797 and were returned to Heidelberg at thePeace of Paris in 1815. A gift of 852 others was made in 1816 byPope Pius VII to theUniversity of Heidelberg. Aside from these cases, the Palatine Library remains in the Vatican Library to this day.
In 1657, the manuscripts of the Dukes ofUrbino were acquired. In 1661, the Greek scholarLeo Allatius was made librarian.
QueenChristina of Sweden's important library (mostly amassed by her generals as loot from HabsburgPrague and German cities during theThirty Years' War) was purchased on her death in 1689 byPope Alexander VIII. It represented, for all practical purposes, the entire royal library of Sweden at the time. Had it remained where it was inStockholm, it would all have been lost in the destruction of the royal palace by fire in 1697.
Among the most famous holdings of the library is theCodex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, the oldest known nearly complete manuscript of theBible. TheSecret History ofProcopius was discovered in the library and published in 1623.
Pope Clement XI sent scholars intothe Orient to bring back manuscripts, and is generally regarded as the founder of the library's Oriental section.[8]
A School oflibrary science is associated with the Vatican Library.
The library has a large collection of texts related to Hinduism, with the oldest editions dating to 1819.[31]
During the library's restoration between 2007 and 2010, all of the 70,000 volumes in the library were tagged withelectronic chips to prevent theft.[24]
Lorsch Gospels, an illuminated gospel book written and illustrated from 778 to 820, which is spread up between various museums. The carved ivory rear cover and the Gospels of Luke and John are kept in the Vatican Library
Codex Borgia, an extensiveMesoamerican manuscript that depicts mythology and foundational rituals in the hieroglyphic texts and iconography made of animal skins
Codex Vaticanus 3738, the Codex Ríos,[39] an accordion folded Italian translation of a Spanish colonial-era manuscript, with copies of theAztec paintings from the originalCodex Telleriano-Remensis, believed to be written by the Dominican friar Ríos in 1566
The library contains over 100 Quran manuscripts from various collections, cataloged by the Italian Jewish linguistGiorgio Levi Della Vida:Vaticani arabi 73;Borgiani arabi 25;Barberiniani orientali 11;Rossiani 2. The largest manuscript in the library,Vat. Ar. 1484, measures 540x420mm. The smallest,Vat. Ar. 924, is a circle of 45mm diameter preserved in an octagonal case.[41]
In 2012, plans were announced to digitize, in collaboration with theBodleian Library, a million pages of material from the Vatican Library.
On 20 March 2014, the Holy See announced thatNTT Data Corporation and the library had concluded an agreement to digitize approximately 3,000 of the library's manuscripts within four years.[42] NTT is donating the equipment and technicians, estimated to be worth 18 million euros.[43] It noted that there is the possibility of subsequently digitizing another 79,000 of the library's holdings. These will be high-definition images available on the library's Internet site. Storage for the holdings will be on a three petabyte server provided byEMC.[44] It is expected that the initial phase will take four years.[45]
DigiVatLib is the name of the Vatican Library's digital library service. It provides free access to the Vatican Library's digitized collections of manuscripts and incunabula.[46]
The scanning of documents is impacted by the material used to produce the texts. Books using gold and silver in the illuminations require special scanning equipment.[28] Digital copies are being served using theCIFS protocol, from network-attached storage hardware byDell EMC.[21]
TheVatican Apostolic Archive, located inVatican City, is the central archive for all of the actspromulgated by theHoly See, as well as thestate papers, correspondence,papal account books,[47] and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders ofPope Paul V, the Archives were separated from the Vatican Library, where scholars had some very limited access to them, and remained absolutely closed to outsiders until 1881, whenPope Leo XIII opened them to researchers, more than a thousand of whom now examine its documents each year.[48]
TheVatican Film Library inSt. Louis, Missouri is the only collection, outside the Vatican itself, of microfilms of more than 37,000 works from theBiblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Vatican Library in Europe. It is located in the Pius XII Library on the campus ofSaint Louis University.[49] The library was created by Lowrie J. Daly (1914–2000), with funding from theKnights of Columbus.[50] The goal was to make Vatican and other documents more available to researchers in North America.[51]
Microfilming of Vatican manuscripts began in 1951, and according to the library's website, was the largest microfilming project that had been undertaken up to that date.[52] The library opened in 1953, and moved to the St. Louis University campus, in the Pius XII Memorial Library, in 1959. The first librarian was Charles J. Ermatinger, who served until 2000. As of 2007[update], the library has microfilmed versions of over 37,000 manuscripts, with material inGreek,Latin,Arabic,Hebrew andEthiopic, as well as several more common Western European languages. There are reproductions of many works from the Biblioteca Palatina and BibliotecaCicognara at the Vatican, as well asPapal letter registers from theArchivio Segreto Vaticano (Vatican Secret Archives) from the 9th to 16th centuries, in the seriesRegistra Vaticana andRegistra Supplicationium.[53]
The nominal head of the library has often over the centuries been made acardinal and hence given the title Cardinal Librarian.[8] The effective directors, often distinguished scholars, were in an earlier period called "Custodians.[8] After the reopening of the library in 1883, Pope Leo XIII changed the title to Prefect.[8][54][55]
The library currently has some 80 staff who work in five departments: manuscripts and archival collections, printed books/drawings, acquisitions/cataloguing, coin collections/museums and restoration/photography.[7]
^This sculpture is described in the following words: "S. Tommaso seduto, nella sinistra tiene il libro dellaSumma theologica, mentre stende la destra in atto di proteggere la scienza cristiana. Quindi non siede sulla cattedra di dottore, ma sul trono di sovrano protettore; stende il braccio a rassicurare, non a dimostrare. Ha in testa il dottorale berretto, e conservando il suo tipo tradizionale, rivela nel volto e nell'atteggiamento l'uomo profondamente dotto. L'autore non ha avuto da ispirarsi in altr'opera che esistesse sul soggetto, quindi ha dovuto, può dirsi, creare questo tipo, ed è riuscito originale e felice nella sua creazione."[25]
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church -Miranda, Salvador."The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church". Florida International University Libraries.Archived from the original on 30 October 2011. Retrieved28 July 2014.
Toward On-line, worldwide access to Vatican Library materials (1996). A collaborative effort (pioneered by Fr.Leonard Boyle OP Prefect of the Vatican Library) between the Vatican Library andIBM, the primary goal of which is to "provide access via the Internet to some of the Library's most valuable manuscripts, printed books, and other sources to a scholarly community around the world."
The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome, a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the library (p. 280–290)
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