Vatican Library Manuscripts Serve as Wealth of Knowledge for Academics Across the World

by Nicola Gori Featured eBook Free eBook: Liturgical Year 2013-2014, Vol. 1

Document Information Description: L'Osservatore Romano's Nicola Gori interviews Cardinal Raffaele Farina, S.D.B., Archivist and Librarian of Holy Roman Church, in the Vatican Apostolic Library, which houses important documents of Christian history. Larger Work: L'Osservatore Romano Pages: 14 15 Publisher & Date: Vatican, September 24, 2008

The Vatican Library houses important documents of Christian history. From time to time there are discoveries, true or presumed, that concern the Church's origins and the early centuries, coupled with disputes that succeed in calling into question the historicity of Christ or accuse the ecclesiastical institution of manipulation.

As a historian, I believe that even among Catholic exegetes at times use methods that end by leaving history out of consideration. Another cause of erroneous interpretations is the lack of interdisciplinary comparison in the study of antiquity.

For example in studying the history of persecutions, knowledge of the development of the Roman institutions is necessary, but often unknown to a fair number of scholars. As regards the figure of Jesus, these disputes are as old as Christianity itself. And just as in their time the bad faith of Lucian and Celsus who wrote against the Christians was evident, so today too there is a great deal of bad faith as well as ignorance of course. In this regard the Vatican, like many other libraries, preserves a great many testimonies. There is nothing that is better documented than the history of Jesus of Nazareth, for example, in comparison with other historical figures concerning whom no one would dream of advancing doubts.

Benedict XVI's Visit to the Vatican Library in 2007 underlined this particular, in a certain way secular aspect and perhaps at the same time gave it a new impetus. In what way?

Benedict XVI emphasized one aspect on which we set great store, that is, the Library's direct dependence on the Pope. This is already evident in the name of the "apostolic" library, that is, "palatine", in other words, part of the Apostolic Palace. The Vatican Secret Archives does not have this title, even though the Curia could never do without it.

Paradoxically, it could do without the Library but not the Archives. The Archives, among other things, do not have the Library's problems of space since their premises are three or four times the size of those of the Library.

Without any doubt, the Vatican Library has an ecclesiastical configuration but this might not be very apparent since it has been open to all from the outset. Since its modern foundation, the Library has been open to all scholars, regardless of their faith, culture, and nation, while the Archives were initially exclusively for the use of the Curia.

The statistics show that most of the people who visit the Library are Italian, obviously, but academics come from all over the world: there are no data on the religions to which they belong but naturally the majority are not Catholic.

I tell students of library science that this discipline teaches care and love for books, not only for what they are but also for what they represent, in other words knowledge and the result of man's endeavours concerning knowledge.

I say that the librarian is at the service of books but also of the community. Library science always concerns the organization and preservation of books but also and above all the best way to make books available to the community, for books without readers are dead.

The Catholic Church is at one and the same time religion and culture and there has never been a separation between them. I speak of the Catholic Church rather than of Christianity and this is evident here, where the interaction among knowledge, art and religion continues. And scholars absorb it.

Certain contacts have at times become ecumenical encounters such as the two exhibitions we recently organized in Germany on the Baroque period. They were visited above all by Protestants who realized the importance of the half a dozen Popes against whom prejudice and caricature had been de rigueur for centuries. They now see these Popes in a different light.

Then we have established friendly relations with the Orthodox through our collaboration on a precious manuscript of Basil II, which was far more fruitful from many points of view than many theological discussions.

You are also a Salesian, you have been in touch with the simplest people and with youth. Has not the administration of the Vatican Apostolic Library removed you from this world?

I would not say so. One needs to see first hand how life goes on in here. The management, in my opinion, is becoming more and more important. One manages the actual life of the dependents for whom one is responsible.

Here we have about 100 employees, and in the Archives there are 80. If those who work here part-time are included, that would be about another 50. I receive staff members who come to talk to me about the daily running of the Library and they often also speak of their family problems. There are people here of all ages and I know almost all the employees' families. This is my parish. Of course, when I first came here, I did not find the university atmosphere from which I came.

Then here in the Vatican Library we are only three clerics: the Cardinal, the Prefect and an American priest who is a specialist in legal problems: all the others are lay people.

The foundation of the modern Vatican Library dates back to Nicholas V (1447-1455): What role did he, the founder, intend it to play?

The modern Library is the one Nicholas V founded in the mid-15th century. There is no real act of foundation dating back to that time but one document, the Brief Iamdiu Decrevimus, shows that the Library already existed by 30 April 1451.

A quarter of a century later, on 15 June 1475, Sixtus IV promulgated the Bull Ad Decorem Militantis Ecclesiae with which he reorganized the Library, officially assigning it a librarian, some assistants and financial support.

Nicholas V and Sixtus IV are considered the founders of the modern or "first" Vatican Library (the second one is that of Sixtus V and the third, that of Leo XIII).

Nicholas V, a theologian and scholar, a humanist who had been involved with books and libraries, was aware of the importance of books and was nourished by the ideals of humanistic culture. He also possessed his own personal library, considered large for the times (at least 150 Latin codices). He decided to transform the collection of books which until then had been for the Pope's personal use about 350 codices to which he added his, into a library. Its purpose was "to facilitate the research of scholars" (pro communi doctorum virorum commodo).

Pope Nicholas V consequently made accessible to external readers too what until then had been a library for the exclusive use of the Papal Curia. This is not only old history, because still today Nicholas V's statement in the Brief is one of the foundations of the Vatican Library and is explicitly recalled in the first article of our Statutes.

The Pontiff had a suitable place prepared in the Vatican Palace and began to collect books in accordance with a vast plan that would make it possible to build up a library that was truly universal, in accordance with humanistic criteria.

The "universality" desired by Nicholas V was to be achieved by following two criteria in particular. First of all, books were to be collected that were written in both the languages of study and culture, that is, Greek and Latin. This was a highly innovative' decision when we remember that the papal library at Avignon did not possess a single Greek manuscript.

And the second criterion concerned the disciplines that the books addressed; the word used was facultates. The library of which the Pope was dreaming was to be able to cover all the "faculties".

Thus it was not merely a specialized collection, for example, of theological or legal works like the great university libraries at that time but was to encompass all the areas of knowledge, including literature, with the collection of the Latin and Greek classics and the sciences, with books on medicine, astronomy and mathematics.

To do this the Pope ordered the purchase of books in all the markets of the East and the West, sending out trusted men even to distant regions. They were charged to transcribe, at his expense, important books which could not be purchased, in order that a copy of them might reach Rome.

Nicholas V's efforts were successful: from the inventory made when he died in 1455 and from other lists there were more than 1,200 manuscripts, a third of which were Greek and the rest Latin. The quality and quantity of its texts made it one of the richest libraries in Europe. It is not surprising that the learned men of the time praised the initiative of the great humanist Pope, comparing him to Ptolemy, the founder of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

How is the Vatican Library organized?

Today the Vatican Apostolic Library possesses one of the largest collections of manuscripts in the world, the result of its being constantly increased. However, to answer your question better, it would be right to describe the general organization of the Library.

The Cardinal Librarian presides over the direction of the Library he is also Archivist and is thus responsible also for the Secret Archives and it is managed by the Prefect with the collaboration of the

Vice-Prefect. The staff is organized in three large sectors. First of all are the offices that serve the prefecture directly and they are those of the secretariat (protocol, correspondence, current and historical archives of the prefecture, the office for the reproduction of rights and copyright and so forth), and the purveying office.

Then there are the departments: the first is that of manuscripts with two sections (manuscripts and archives), then the printed works with seven sections (accessions, catalogue, reading rooms, ancient books, print room, non-library material), and lastly, there is the numismatic hall.

The services follow: the exhibitions office, restoration laboratory, photographic laboratory, data processing centre, printers, library-science school and the coordination of computer services. The Manuscripts Department is the heart of the Vatican library and its principal feature.

What is preserved in the Library?

The manuscripts are divided into about 130 collections, open and closed. The latter consist of the historical libraries, of princes and private people, acquired down the centuries by the Library: for example, the Urbinate, the Reginense, the Palatina. These old libraries no longer increase.

On the other hand, we continue to add to the open or Vaticani collections. These are almost ex lusively divided into the alphabets in which they are written: Vaticani latini, Vaticani greci, Vaticani siriaci, Vaticani ebraici, and so forth.

The enormous quantity of manuscripts kept in the Vatican Library covers practically all of the branches of human knowledge: literature; history, art, law, astronomy, mathematics, the natural sciences, medicine, liturgy, patristics, and theology.

To mention a few examples, some of the oldest copies of works by Homer, Euclid, Cicero, Virgil and Dante are kept here; and the numerous biblical codices include the most important Codice Vaticano (or

Codex B, the Vaticano greco 1209), one of the oldest complete biblical codices which dates back to the beginning of the fourth century, and the third-century Bodmer VIII Papyrus, which contains the Two Letters of St Peter. Among the Arab codices there is the only known example of an illustrated Muslim manuscript that comes from Spain, the Vaticano arabo 638.

Excluding the archivistic codices there are more than 75,000 manuscripts. Most of these are medieval and humanistic, with several important ancient copies and many others from the modern epoch.

The "Latin", in other words the documents written in the Latin alphabet (in Latin, Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Provencal, and so on) amount to about 60,000 and those in Greek, to about 5,000. There are about 800 in Hebrew and about 9,000 in other Oriental languages (including Arabic, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic), and about 2,000 in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Then there is a substantial patrimony of early printed works (about 8,300 incunabula, a great number from the 16th and 17th centuries), prints, (more than 70,000 including engravings, prints, drawings, maps and so forth), drawings, objects, coins and medals (more than 300,000 in one of the largest numismatic collections in the world), and then there are the modern prints.

The selection of, and accession to, the prints, especially in recent decades, permits the study of the manuscripts. There are about 1,650,000 volumes of prints.

The Vatican Library recently acquired a very ancient New Testament manuscript: what is its importance?

This is the Bodmer Papyrus XIV-XV, known by the abbreviation "P75", which is the oldest testimony of the texts of Luke and John. They were given to Benedict XVI by a Catholic from the U.S., Frank J. Hanna III. The codex was transcribed in the last decades of the second century or a little later, that is, less than a century and a half after the canonical Gospels had been written, that is, in the second half of the first century. But it is not only its age that gives this papyrus its inestimable value.

The data gleaned from studying it have actually made it possible to reconstruct definitively part of the history of the Gospels.

The "established" text of P75 is very trustworthy and above all is not the product of editions standardized at the time of the great manuscripts in capitals during the Constantinian age, as had been supposed, because the text of the Gospels was established, precisely, very much earlier, that is, shortly after the middle of the second century.

Discovered in 1952 in Jabal al-Tarif, in the heart of Egypt near the ruins of an ancient monastery and purchased in 1955, together with other important papyruses, by the Swiss collector Martin Bodmer, the text of P75 was published in 1961 by Victor Martin and Rudolph Kasser.

P75 is more or less the size of a medium-sized book (about 26 cm x 13 cm wide). It consisted of 36 double leaves of papyrus, folded in two and stitched together to form a codex of 72 pages written on both sides, constituting a total of 144 sides in accordance with the book format introduced in the first century which, because it was practical and manageable, immediately became the favourite format of Christians for their texts.

Fifty-one of the original 72 leaves have survived (that is, 102 sides), entire or in fragments, which contain almost all of Luke's Gospel and about half of John's.

Transcribed in sober and elegant capitals, the date of the codex has been established on the basis of comparison with other manuscripts as between 175 and 225, but its text and this accounts for the great importance of this very ancient manuscript is very like that attested, in the Constantinian age, by Codex B (the famous Vaticano greco 1209), which, with the Sinai Codex (most of which is kept in London today) is the most ancient complete testimony of the Greek Bible.

Has the reconstruction work of the Library made good progress?

The restructuring concerns four sites on which work is underway. Work on the first two will probably be concluded in 2008, or at the latest by Easter 2009. The first site is that of the numismatic and medals room. The second includes the three floors of the restoration laboratories for manuscripts, and the photographic and digital laboratories with their archives. This site is linked to the construction of an external lift in the Library's internal courtyard, planned and built by Italcementi. This lift will link the three floors of laboratories with the manuscripts' consultation room and will go down to the storeroom for manuscripts.

The third site will concern the manuscripts bunker. The delicate operation of the packing and transfer of all the manuscripts to near and safe premises has just been completed.

Advanced technology will be used to dig out and build the bunker's emergency exit, the whole area will be repaved with special fire-proof material and paint; the walls and the cement ceiling will be treated likewise, the electricity circuits will be renewed, as well as the climatization and humidity control systems, and all the systems for security and conservation will be according to regulations.

The bunker will be enlarged with a newly dugout air-conditioned strong-room for the conservation of papyruses.

The structure of the machine room, next to the entrance to the bunker will be renewed, simplified, and equipped with proper control systems.

A fourth work site will concern the storeroom of periodicals. This storage space has also been emptied and work begun to extend it to three floors. It will be equipped with compact shelving that will save a considerable amount of space for the periodicals and for a store to be used by the purveying office.

The work on the third and fourth site are due to be completed by October 2009. A fifth site, recently approved, envisages the return of the Sistine Hall to the Vatican Library: this historical hall will be arranged as a second consultation room for printed editions.

To give access to it, the small existing lift will be replaced, and it will be in working order at the very latest by June 2009.

How are the people who work in the Vatican Library trained?

Several years ago we reintroduced the competitive examination for the scriptores. For other employees, rather than what was done previously, we now engage personnel who are qualified to

assume the role for which they were interviewed. I have to say that Italy now has high quality schools of library science, archiving, conservation and the restoration of cultural goods in which to find them.

It is also easy to foresee in the near future a further increase in the number of qualified women on the roll of the Vatican Library. The percentage of women employees, which has already increased considerably in the past 10 years, has already reached 35 percent.

The Library takes part in many important exhibitions across the world. What are your projects for the future?

First of all, the current exhibition on Federico da Montefeltro in the ducal Palace of Urbino should be mentioned. The idea was to celebrate the Duke of Urbino, as the "new" man of the Renaissance who was able to combine political and military duties with concern for the humanistic sciences and art; the most beautiful illuminated codices of Federico's library and other objects of his time are on show there. Seventeen important and richly illuminated codices of the Vatican are on display for the occasion.

Another important exhibition has been organized in the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls for the Pauline Year. Then an exhibition on Matilda of Canossa, the Papacy and the Empire opened in Mantua on 31 August and will run until 11 January 2009.

Lastly, an exhibition will open in the Museum of History and Culture, Nagasaki, from November 2008 to January 2009, organized on the occasion of the beatification on 24 November 2008 of the 188 Japanese martyrs. This event is not only involving the Christian communities but the entire Japanese nation. The celebration is in fact seen as a celebration for the whole of Japan and the Vatican's contribution acquires a special value in the context of intercultural dialogue. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8455 A HISTORY OF THE VATICAN LIBRARY Introduction

History of the Library

Bibliography

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About Me History of the Library

The Vatican Library began during the Renaissance, a time when scribes, illuminators, binders and printers prided themselves on creating books that were as physically beautiful as their contents were illuminating. Owning or reading a book of this time offered not only intellectual pleasure, but tactile and social experiences as well. During this time it was mostly in the great monasteries that collections of books were being created, collected and used for study. It was in the Scriptoria of these monasteries where the monks created books for their own use, as well as outside commissions. (Begni)

At the beginning of the Renaissance period, Rome was practically a desert where once a great city had thrived. In the 14th century, the seat of papal rule had been moved from Rome to Avignon, in southern France, but by the late 14th century the authority of the papal government was reestablished in Rome and became the papal states. It was soon after this that Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) set out to build a new Rome. His plan to build extensive public works to provide both physical defenses for the Church and to lure pilgrims and scholars began a transformation of the city. (Grafton)

The popes had always collected books for their own private libraries; at this time important collections of books were mostly confined to churches, monasteries, and wealthy individuals. Most people rarely had the opportunity to view or study a book. Nicolas decided that he wanted to create a public library for the use of all scholars. It was not meant to be a mere collection of books. He meant to establish it as an institution, a central public library for humanist scholarship.

Nicholas began to increase his personal collection by purchasing volumes and employing copyists to copy originals that could not be bought from their owners. He also invited Italian and exiled Byzantine scholars to Rome and commissioned them to translate the Greek Classics into Latin for his library. Since the invention of printing, the collection of printed books had begun as well. Pope Nicholas was an expert calligraphist, he was able to personally oversee the work done by his copyists and binders. He had the writing done on the finest parchment, and had most of the manuscripts bound in crimson and fastened with silver clasps. (Begni)

Nicholass death prevented him from carrying out his idea of a public library, but the idea was adopted by his successor, Sixtus IV (1471- 1484). It was common practice, when a pope died, to leave his collections and papers to his familys archives, and not to the next pope, although some of these family collections have come back to the Vatican Library as personal family donations. Nicholas left Sixtus three distinct collections, or libraries, one of Latin codices, one of Greek codices, and the Secret Archives of the papacy itself. Nicholas was the first pope to leave his library as a central beneficiary of his patronage. (Grafton)

Sixtus established a permanent area to house the volumes, records and Secret Archives in the Vatican Palace, and called it the Palatine Library. It was equipped with shelves, desks, benches and presses. Giovanni Tortelli was named director of the Library, and he prepared the first catalogue of the collection. However, the rooms that stored the volumes were small, dark and damp, and needed to be improved if a public library were to be established, as well as for the preservation of the books.

The Library was enlarged by Julius II (1503-1513), and later rebuilt by Sixtus V. It was considered a gigantic undertaking, at a cost of over twenty-five thousand dollars, which rose to over forty thousand dollars after furnishing and artwork, a fortune for the time. There were beautiful frescos and it was lighted by large windows and furnished with elaborate wooden benches where most books were chained, as was usual in those days. The Library became a spectacular a work of art, and it was at this time that it came to be known as the Vatican Library.

Even Sixtus gigantic library soon became full, and gradually the collection spread throughout hallways and into adjoining rooms. It was Pope Pius X who eventually remedied the situation by relocating the nearby Vatican Press, and assigning its space to the Vatican Library. (Begni)

The growth of the collection of the Vatican Library grew rapidly. Large and small purchases and donations continued to fill the limited library space. Examples would be the transference of the

Heidelberg Library to Rome in the 18th century, and the contributions Pope Clement XI (1700-1721), who dispatched scholars to all parts of the Orient to purchase manuscripts, and who is regarded as the founder of the Oriental section. The magnificent prices that were paid for some of the texts made them highly attractive to many curious scholars. (Grafton)

Some materials that the Vatican Library has acquired over the years have caused some controversy. For example, the first 6 books of the 'Annals of Tacitus' were known to have been stolen from the Monastery of Corvey. In the early 16th century Pope Leo was able to acquire them, and fully knew the circumstances. In 1515 he made printed copies of the manuscript, and graciously sent a set of the printed books, specially bound, to the Abbot of Corvey. (Orcutt)

The library staff were referred to as Custodians and the director of the Library as the Cardinal Librarian. There were scientific officials such as Scriptores (the ancestors of modern scriptores who do the scholarly research for catalogs of the librarys holdings), as well as attendants. Many of the scientific officials were responsible for the investigation, arrangement and description of the Codices, the preparation of the catalogues of manuscripts for printing, and the supervision of the printing. There were officials whose work was confined to the manuscripts and some who were in charge of the printed books. A number of bookbinders were also on staff for repairing old bindings and making new ones as well. When a manuscript was newly bound, it was imprinted with the coat of arms of the current reigning Pope, however the bindings of the printed books did not receive the imprint. (Begni)

The academic staff represented the interests of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, which was quite an innovation in that time, a humanist ideal that a man of culture should be conversant with Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The humanists believed that the Greek and Latin classics contained the lessons one needed to lead a moral and effective life. It was an ideal that was thriving all over Europe. The Vatican Library was not a University, so by supporting this ideal it was claiming to be more than just a book repository, it was claiming to also be an academic centre in the humanist tradition.

By functioning as an academic centre, the library was able to do what war could not. It was able to maintain the prestige of the papacy among intellectuals, help to combat heresies, and provide access to the truths of the ancient world.

This openness of scholarly study did occasionally lead to conflict between the librarys contents and the purpose and beliefs of the Church itself. There was a risk that the science being studied could be used to

undermine the power of the papacy, to threaten the solid historical basis of the medieval Church by a scholarly opinion that replaced it with a history of a vast and disorderly cosmos.

Humanist studies such as Latin poetry and the study of classical ruins were purposely cultivated by the Vatican and it became recognized throughout Europe for its sophistication, humour, and wide variety of scholarly interest. It is interesting to note that some areas of study, like Galileos radical new ideas, were not considered to be tolerable scientific ideas by the advanced scholars of the Vatican.

During the Renaissance the library offered a highly advanced facility for scholarly work. Its collections were considered comprehensive, its staff educated and informative and it was considered Europes finest resource for Oriental studies.

There were rules and procedures in place for controlling and maintaining the collection. Each librarian had an inventory of the books in notebook form that was adequate at the time for a collection of a few thousand books. As the collection grew, shelf lists were added as well. (Grafton)

Most of the manuscripts were chained to benches, which were actually tables with benches attached to them. Each of these was dedicated to a particular subject, and the scholars who wished to use them had to study them in place. Many more of the manuscripts were stored in low, beautifully painted wooden presses in the wings of the buildings that were several hundred yards long. The public would be permitted access only to the reading room, so when a scholar desired a certain manuscript stored in the presses, the attendants had to travel a long distance from the Reading room to the presses, carrying back and forth the massive volumes. (Begni)

There was often the fear of theft and damage to the manuscripts and books, so the attendants had to keep close watch on the patrons at all times. The librarians all swore solemn oaths to preserve and account for every book in their care. Scholars were allowed to borrow volumes up until the early 17th century. The circulation system consisted of registers that recorded loans and their return. Some of these registers still exist, and we can see scholars such as the philosopher Pico della Mirandola, borrowing and returning the works of Roger Bacon. When a scholar would borrow a volume, they also had to take the chains that held it to the table, as a reminder to bring them back. When books were not returned in a timely fashion and the librarians themselves were not able to persuade the borrower to return them, the Pope himself would have to send out a recall notice, which would usually produce results.

Rome began attracting a large community of scholars. Many kinds of creative institutions began to emerge. In the 15th century Romes printers began creating fashionable classical texts and commentaries. In the 16th century, Romes postal service became the most rapid and sophisticated in Europe, and in the late 17th century, there emerged in Rome a body of sarcastic political observers who produced biting newsletters read throughout Europe, ancestor to the modern newspaper. By the end of the 17th century Rome was again a grand city that possessed a unique drama and excitement.

Unfortunately, as the city, library and the Vatican itself grew and flourished problems began to arise. The popes became very ambitious, they began supporting many wars and their extravagant living and questionable moral behaviour was criticized. Many people felt that the practices of the Catholic Church were inappropriate.

The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 with Luthers protest against such indulgences. He attacked traditional doctrines and practices as well as the papacy itself, and did not have to work very hard to convince the masses of the immoral extravagance of the popes in their many military, political, architectural and artistic pursuits.

The leaders of the Church had no choice but to redefine their beliefs and practices if they hoped to survive the Reformation. The constitution of the Church was made into a more centralized form and the Cardinals became officers of Papal policy rather than independent barons. It was the curial intellectuals, including the Vatican librarians, that helped to use the context of culture, theology, church history, scholarly pursuits and religious art to defend their faith and activities.

During and shortly after the Reformation, the policies regarding the vision for the Vatican Library, and access to it changed. The library began to focus on Ecclesiastical history and law as they were matters relevant to the reform of the Church. Indices of prohibited books were drawn up, and certain persons, such as Protestant scholars, were prohibited as well. (Grafton)

Things did not change for a long time. Over the next three centuries, even when other libraries all over Europe were bustling with activity, readers scarcely ever came to the Vatican Library. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte arrested and imprisoned Pius VII (1800-1823) and ordered the contents of the Vatican Archives moved to Paris; over three thousand chests of materials were shipped. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, it took 3 years to move the materials back to the Vatican. (Blouin)

It was not until the time of Leo XIII (1878-1903) that the Vatican Library is described as having an awakening after a long sleep. In August, 1883, Pope Leo formally opened the library once again to scholars. New rules were formed, a spacious reading room was opened, new staff were hired and the office of the Cardinal Librarian was now regarded as the position of Prefect. (Grafton)

From 1895 to 1914 Father Franz Ehrle was the prefect of the Vatican Library, and he is credited with bringing the library back to life. He was said to possess a great knowledge of the workings of a library, unbending energy, patience and a wide range of scientific and technical knowledge.

Father Ehrle began by revising many regulations, and assuring that they were followed more stringently than had been expected in the past. He began reorganizing the collection to promote proper storage and gave priority to the preservation and restoration of the damaged manuscripts in the collection. He also did away with some old practices, such as the earlier custom of marking a small black cross on the back of all manuscripts which, because of their contents, were not deemed advisable to place at the disposal of all scholars indiscriminately. (Begni)

Some of Father Ehrles other projects included seeking out new collections, such as the Borghese and Barberini libraries, and devising a large reference area for the convenience of students working with the manuscripts. The reference collection was classified according to the Library of Congress scheme, as were all new books. Father Ehrle renovated and modernized the reading rooms, added a convenient entrance to the library, an additional 14 miles of steel shelving and also installed a new ventilation system for the stacks. The new stacks were of the American design, Snead Standard Stacks with open bar shelves composed of three tiers of various lengths. Three stairways and an elevator provide access and across the top a bridge united the stacks to the cataloging room. (Tiss)

Adjacent to the reading room, the new catalog cards together with sets of cards from the Library of Congress were housed in catalog drawers. Father Ehrle also removed all the manuscripts from the state rooms and housed them in fire proof compartments near the reading and reference areas. Library attendants were undoubtedly grateful to Father Ehrle, for their endless journeys of carrying massive volumes up and down the long corridors were finally ended. (Begni)

Father Ehrle also set up the first library conservation department in Europe and began a program of photographically reproducing many of the important works in the collections to assist with their

preservation while making them more accessible to scholars. Once the preservation activities were initiated, materials from other libraries were eventually transferred to the Vatican Library for safer preservation. (Grafton)

The department devoted to the repairing of damaged manuscripts became a very important part of the Vatican Library. Father Ehrle encouraged many libraries across the world to study the repair and preservation of library materials and to share their methods. The Vatican Library Clinic developed many new processes of its own, and accepted other libraries volumes for repair, depending on their importance. (Begni)

With the help of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Library of Congress between 1927 and 1939, an excellent card catalog to all the printed books was created. An American trained Norwegian named John Ansteinsson of Trondheim became the father of modern cataloging in the Vatican Library. For two years he directed the work of four staff members experienced in the work from the Library of Congress or in various library schools in the USA. (Grafton)

The Rev. Leonard E. Boyle was the chief librarian of the Vatican Library from 1984 to 1997. He is given credit for further modernizing the Vatican Library. Fr. Boyle was a highly respected Oxford-trained paleographer, or student of manuscripts, and a widely published and prize-winning scholar. Fr. Boyle computerized the library's catalogues, wired the main reading room for laptops, hired women for the first time and liberalized the strict dress code. In 1995 a professor of art at Ohio State University stole two leaves from a medieval manuscript once owned by Petrarch. Father Boyle was criticized for granting Professor Melnikas special access to the library, and was dismissed from the Vatican Library in 1997. (New York Times)

Today the Vatican Library houses the richest collection of western manuscripts and printed books in the world. Even though the collection of printed books is not large in number, the percentage of rare and valuable works is much greater than is found in any other library of such proportions. Such a vast collection of early printed books records the efforts of great printers like Aldus Manutius to preserve manuscripts from damage and to make books accessible to a far wider audience than scribes could reach.

The Popes had books, in addition to other works of art, custom made. Books were written and illuminated by the greatest artists of the time, in styles as varied as those of any other work of art. However, they also understood that an individual book, especially a manuscript, could also be an

historical as well as a literary document. The notes and letters by scholars in the margins of a work provide the opportunity for tangible contact with the past. Texts like these, marbled and layered with messages and meanings, record both what the ancients had to say and what each generation of later readers and scholars said about them. (Grafton)

In the modern day world the Vatican Library provides us with an invaluable historical resource, a rich historical record of science, learning and the arts in Europe for the past millennium. The manuscripts and printed books found today in the Vatican Library are the result of a long and involved history of deliberate acquisition, humanist ideals and the desire to acquire and share scholarly pursuits. Aesthetically and historically, it is a treasure of humanity. http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap05/debbie/history.html

The Vatican Library and its History This document consists of three short press releases from the Library of Congress. These press releases provide a brief overview of the Vatican Library and its history, including its relationship with the Library of Congress. The press releases are:

The Vatican Library and the Library of Congress: Background The Vatican Library: A Chronology Vatican Library Facts The press release number and date appear at the end of each release.

The Vatican Library and the Library of Congress Background The loan of rare materials for "Rome Reborn" is, in the words of Father Leonard Boyle, "an attempt on the part of the Vatican Library, at a distance of over sixty years, to express its gratitude to all those from North America who contributed so forcefully to 'the common convenience of the learned' which is at the heart of the Vatican Library."

The direct association between the Vatican Library and the Library of Congress began in the fall of 1927, when two employees of the Vatican Library were sent to the Library of Congress to work in the

cataloging department. The visit was part of an overall project funded by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to improve the cataloging and organization of the Vatican Library.

In the spring of 1928, the chief cataloger of the Library of Congress, Charles Martel, led a group of American librarians who were sent to the Vatican to catalog a sample portions of the collections as a guide for the Vatican to follow in the future. Working with Mr. Martel were C.M. Hanson of the University of Chicago; William Warner Bishop, director of libraries at the University of Michigan; William C. Randall, also of the University of Michigan; and the Norwegian John Ansteinsson of Trondheim, who later became director of cataloguing for the Vatican Library.

On the foundations laid by this group, the reference collection was classified according to the Library of Congress system, as were all new books. The reading rooms were renovated and the level of lighting improved and a new entrance was opened. Fourteen miles of steel shelving were added, and new catalog cards were added to a complete set of printed cards from the Library of Congress.

PR92-147 12-07-92 ISSN #0371-3527 The Vatican Library: A Chronology 1451 Pope Nicholas V conceives of a library "for the common convenience of the learned", and the Vatican Library is born. Nicholas's collection numbered about 1,160 books. 1475 Pope Sixtus IV brings the Library to life, installing the books in a restored suite of rooms, building up the collection, and naming Bartolomeo Platina as the Vatican's first formal librarian. 1470-1525 During the High Renaissance, the Library grew enormously. By 1481, a handwritten catalog by Platina showed 3,500 entries. As from its inception, the collections were available without restriction regarding the reader's religious or other views. 1517 Protestant Reformation begins.

1570-1610 Counter-Reformation. The Library inevitably suffered from the introduction of the Index of banned books (1558) and some limitations on access were imposed. 1623 Most of the rich holdings of the Palatine Library in the Protestant stronghold of Heidelberg become part of the Vatican Library collection as war booty. Mid-1600s The Library again welcomed unfettered scholarly pursuit, including by Protestants. It acquired vast new holdings of manuscripts and books, most notably a spectacular assortment of items from distant lands. 1785 Pope Pius VI strictly limits the consultation of manuscripts, prompting Spanish priest Juan Andres to accuse the pope of overseeing a "cemetery of books not a library." 1883 Pope Leo XIII formally declares the Library open to qualified researchers. 1927-1939 The Library of Congress and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace help modernize the Vatican Library's book catalog system. 1992 Vatican Library holdings number almost 2 million printed books and serials; 75,000 Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Ethiopian, Syriac and other manuscripts from the 2nd Century A.D. on; 65,000 units of archival volumes in 23 deposits or fondi; 100,000.prints, engravings, maps and drawings; 330,000 Greek, Roman and papal coins and medals. PR 92-148 12-8-92 ISSN #0371-3527 Vatican Library Facts The Vatican Library contains almost 2,000,000 printed books and serials, including over 8,000 incunabula (books printed before 1500).

It also contains: 75,000 manuscripts in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Ethiopian, and Syriac from the second century onwards 65,000 units of archival volumes in 23 deposits 100,000 prints, engravings, maps and drawings 330,000 Greek, Roman, and papal coins and medals There are 2 million cards in the card catalog. Every year about 6,000 new volumes are added. About 25 percent are purchased; the rest are donations. The staff numbers 80 in five departments: manuscripts and archival collections; printed books and drawings; accessions and cataloguing; the coin collections and musei; restoration and photography. Use of the Vatican Library is restricted to scholars with a letter of introduction from their university or institution describing their project.

Father Leonard Boyle has been the chief librarian, or prefect, since 1984. He previously taught paleography at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/History.html

Archival Section Print ARCHIVAL SECTION

A rchives and libraries have something specific and very noble in common: the study of manuscripts, i.e. of hand-written documents and books which make up the most important historical nuclei of the collections which are kept in both types of institution. This common element continuously creates points of contact between librarians and archivists; and there is no doubt that the most recent scientific developments in codicology on the one hand and in archive science on the other have brought these two disciplines so close together that one can, indeed must, speak (..) of an archival approach to manuscripts, whose object is the set of organic collections themselves which contain the manuscripts, inasmuch as these collections form unified complexes (A. Petrucci, La descrizione del manoscritto. Storia, problemi modelli, Rome 1984).

The reasons for the frequent mixture of archives and manuscripts in a single collection are linked to the history of the individual collections. In some cases, it goes back to a bureaucratic conflict or, one might say, an irony of fate. It is well known that it is not at all rare for organic manuscript collections to have incorporated whole series of public documents relating to the political or religious activities of the the founder of the collection. The Vatican Library is very rich in documentary collections, despite the fact that its history is parallel to that of the Vatican Secret Archive (see P. Vian, Frammenti e complessi documentari nella Biblioteca Vaticana, in Archivi e archivistica a Roma dopo lunit: genesi storica, ordinamenti e interrelazioni. Atti del Convegno, Roma 12-14 marzo 1990, pp. 404-441; L. Cacciaglia, Archivi di famiglie nella Biblioteca Vaticana ibid., pp. 380-403. In fact, the Vatican Library contains some of the most remarkable cases of documentary series incorporated into private libraries, e.g. the diplomatic correspondence in the Barberini collection; the documents of the monasteries of Southern Italy in the Chigi collection; the Greek and Latin documents which make up some of the manuscripts of the Vaticani Latini series; and the Introiti-Esiti collection, which is made up of the accounts of the Pontifical House and forms a complement to the rather larger collection which is kept in the Vatican Secret Archive. It was not with the intention of separating the documentary material from the manuscripts belonging to the same collections that the Vatican Library came to create a separate Section for the collections which are more properly or even exclusively archival. Rather, it was curatorial and administrative concerns which led the Library, towards the end of the 1970s, to create the Archival Section, which is now the definitive home of the great archives (or portions of great archives) which have come to the Library in various times and circumstances and for various reasons.

Archival collections are preserved today in the Archival Section; what follows is a quick survey of them. FAMILIES (Barberini, Chigi, SS.ma Incarnazione, Salviati, Colonna, Colonna di Sciarra, Ottoboni)

T he first great archive to come to the Vatican Library was the Barberini Archives, which arrived in 1902 together with the Barberini collections of manuscripts and printed books. Besides the documents regarding the story of the family, it includes those which concern the many abbeys of which the Barberini were commendators; the papers of the Monastery of the Incarnation in Rome (known as the Monastero delle Barberine), and other collections relating to families which were closely linked to the Barberini through marriage or heredity, such as the Salviati, the Colonna di Sciarra, as well as a portion of the Colonna Archives (the other portion, belonging to the Paliano branch of the family, being

preserved in the Colonna Archive in Subiaco), and the accounts books of Card. Pietro Ottoboni Jr. (d. 1740). The diplomatic correspondence concerning the Secretariat of State during the pontificate of Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) remains to this day in the manuscript collection. In 1944, in order to protect it from wartime destruction, the Chigi Archive was brought to the Vatican Library. It consists of around 25,000 items from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, with some documents dating back as far as the twelfth century, and a collection of drawings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The archive and the drawings were brought from the baronial palace of the Chigi in Ariccia, where they had been brought when Palazzo Chigi in Rome was sold to the Italian government. The manuscripts and the printed books had already come to the Library in 1922 as a donation from the Italian government to the Holy See. ROMAN BASILICAS (Capitolo di S. Pietro, S. Anastasia, S. Angelo in Pescheria, S. Maria in Cosmedin, S. Maria in via Lata, S. Maria ad Martyres/Pantheon)

I n 1940, according to the wishes of Pius XI (1922-1939) and of Pius XII (1939-1958), the Archive of the Chapter of St. Peters was transferred from the Basilica, where it had been kept since its beginnings, to the Vatican Library. It represents one of the most important documentary collections of the Librarys Archival Section, not only because of its size, but also because it documents the cultural, religious, artistic and architectural history of the Basilica and constitutes, as such, an indispensable complement to the Archive of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro. As in the family archives, besides the archival documents, there are manuscripts and printed books in the collection, which are kept separately. The properly archival portion of the collection is made up of a number of series, namely the Capsae (78 bound gatherings of parchments and papers, including documents dating back as far as the tenth century and, among them, the bull of Boniface VIII for the Jubilee Year 1300), Privilegi e atti notarili, Censuali, Registri dei mandati, Libri Mastri, Abbazie, Cappella Giulia, Catasti, Mappe dei beni urbani e rustici, and many others series which are linked to the administration of the land holdings of the canonical institution. Entire documentary collections from institutions connected to the Chapter have been incorporated, such as the archive of the Confraternity of S. Egidio, the papers of the Seminario Romano, and of the churches of S. Caterina della Rota and of S. Biagio a via Giulia. Together with the archive of the Chapter, the Library received also the papers of Msgr Angelo Costaguti (1755-1822), canon of St. Peters. The Vatican Library also keeps archives or portions of archives from other Roman Basilicas. As is well known, most of the archives of the chapters of the Roman Basilicas are kept in the Archivio Storico del Vicariato, except for the archive of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, which is at the Archivio di Stato di Roma, and for

those of S. Lorenzo in Damaso and of the Papal Basilicas, which have remained in the relevant churches. Those archives which are entirely or partially kept in the Vatican Library are the following: S. Anastasia (84 items concerning the accounts and administration of the basilica, ranging from 1559 to the end of the nineteenth century; the rest of the archive is in the Archivio Storico del Vicariato); S. Angelo in Pescheria (53 items which came to the Library when the parish was abolished in the early twentieth century); S. Maria in Cosmedin (220 items from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries; a portion of similar size is in the Archivio del Vicariato); S. Maria in via Lata (984 parchments from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, as well as 320 accounting and administrative documents from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries; the rest is in the Archivio del Vicariato); S. Maria ad Martyres or Pantheon (135 items from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries which came to the Library at the beginning of the twentieth century; 344 more items are in the Vicariato). NOTAI DORANGE

T his collection (447 numbers for a total of 452 paper volumes) includes the entire notarial archive of the Principality of Orange, as well as some registers of the notaries themselves, who worked also in the Comtat Venaissin (Avignon, Carpentras, Courthzon, Piolenc). All these documents are dated to between 1311 and 1557. They constitute a complete and extremely precious source for the reconstruction of the social history of Provence. The collection was acquired by the Vatican Library in the first half of the twentieth century through an exchange with the Vatican Secret Archive, where it had been kept since it had been brought there together with the documents of the chancery of Avignon. Both collections - the chancery collection and the notarial one - came from the Papal archive of Avignon.

RACCOLTA PATETTA

F ederico Patetta (b. Cairo Montenotte, February 16, 1867, d. Alessandria, October 28, 1945) was a historian of Italian law, which he taught from 1892 to 1935 in the Universities of Macerata, Siena, Modena, Pisa, Turin and Rome. He gathered an immense quantity of autographs, manuscripts, parchments and printed books, which was divided into different parts upon his death.

The largest portion, made up of autographs, manuscripts and parchments, was donated by Patetta to the Vatican Library (Patetta was a friend of Contardo Ferrini; and since at least 1898 he had been corresponding with Giovanni Mercati, who was Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church at the time of the donation). The printed books were acquired by the University of Turin and placed in a special library named after Patetta in Palazzo Carignano. However, the books, documents and manuscripts relative to the history of Cairo Montenotte were placed in the archives of the parish of S. Lorenzo in Cairo Montenotte. The collection which came to the Vatican Library is now divided into four sections: Autografi e Documenti, Manoscritti, Pergamene and Raccolta Patetta. Of these, only the Raccolta Patteta is kept in the Archival Section of the Library. This collection is made up of the 746 items which have not been assigned to one of the other three sections. It was created only in August 2006 and is not yet available for consultation, as it is still being organized. It is made up of those materials which were originally present in the "Autografi e documenti" section of Patetta's own collection and which, in 2006, had not yet been removed from it to join one of the Vatican Library's other "Patetta" shelf-mark series. As a result, it contains a certain number of series from the "Autografi e documenti" collection, more or less depleted by the process of removal to other series.

F.U.C.I. (FEDERAZIONE UNIVERSITARIA CATTOLICA ITALIANA)

D uring the pontificate of Paul VI, the Church historian Michele Maccarrone, who was close to the leadership of the F.U.C.I., donated to the Vatican Library 52 containers with the personal archives of some of the leading members of the organization (Maria Teresa Balestrino, Maria Carena, Giampietro Dore, Angela Gotelli, Angelo Raffaele Jervolino, Anna Martino, Ugo Piazza, Giandomenico Pini, Igino Righetti). The material is not yet available for consultation. http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=sezione_archivio&ling=eng

The Vatican Library Books for Popes and Scholars The popes had always had a library, but in the middle of the fifteenth century they began to collect books in a new way. Nicholas V decided to create a public library for "the court of Rome"--the whole world of clerics and laymen, cardinals and scholars who inhabited the papal palace and its environs. He and Sixtus IV provided the library with a suite of rooms. These were splendidly frescoed, lighted by large windows, and furnished with elaborate wooden benches to which most books were chained. And, unlike

some modern patrons, the popes of the Renaissance cared about the books as well as about the buildings that housed them. They bought, borrowed, and even stole the beautiful handwritten books of the time. The papal library soon became as spectacular a work of art, in its own way, as the Sistine Chapel or Saint Peter's. It grew rapidly; by 1455 it had 1200 books, 400 of them Greek; by 1481, a handwritten catalogue by the librarian, Platina, showed 3500 entries--by far the largest collection of books in the Western world. And it never stopped growing, thanks to bequests, purchases, and even, sometimes, military conquests.

From the start, the library had a special character. It included Bibles and works of theology and canon law, but it specialized in secular works: above all, the Greek and Latin classics, in the purest texts that the popes and their agents could find, for the popes and their servants saw these as the most powerful source of knowledge and counsel that the world possessed. The Vatican Library, in fact, became a center of the revival of classical culture known as the Renaissance. Its librarians were often distinguished scholars. Historians and philosophers, clerics and magicians visited the collections and borrowed books from them. By 1581, when the French writer Michel de Montaigne visited Rome, the treasures of the Vatican had become a mandatory stop on any well-informed traveller's Roman itinerary. To his delight, Montaigne was shown ancient Roman and ancient Chinese manuscripts, the love letters of Henry VIII, and the classics of history and philosophy (many of which can be seen in this exhibition). Then, as now, the Vatican Library was one of the greatest in the Western world.

The manuscripts and printed books that came to rest in the Vatican Library tell many stories. They help to explain the development of Renaissance thought and art, scholarship and science, in Rome and elsewhere. They shed light on the history of the universal Roman church and on the city in which it flourished, on the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation--even on the history of Western efforts to understand and convert the peoples of the non-Western world. They describe the new education, art, and music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; they show how the curia reached beyond the bounds of Europe, to the Islamic world and even to China; and they reveal some of the conflicts that flared up when the accomplishment of church policy and the pursuit of new knowledge could not both be carried out http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/a-vatican_lib/Vatican_lib.html http://www.loc.gov/rr/main/vatican/ GOOGLE BOOKS

http://books.google.rs/books?id=MT89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=history+of+vatican+library&hl=sr&sa=X &ei=xdudUqCwFYjwhQe6qoHACw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20vatican%20li brary&f=false