The Pope’s Library

THE VATICAN LIBRARY celebrates 560 years of existence this year. Its official beginnings date, in fact, from the Brief ‘pro communi doctorum virorum commodo’ (to facilitate the research of scholars) emanated by Pope Nicholas V on 30 April 1451. The Brief established that all important books and other documents within Vatican premises be gathered together in the same place, and that they be made accessible to all for consultation, even lay scholars.



The origins of the Vatican Library, however, date from the early days of the Church in Rome. In the IV century we already have evidence of the existence of a scrinium, that is, of an archive where the Church’s documents were preserved. In the course of the centuries the scrinium was enlarged, and by the end of the first millennium it was already of considerable significance within Vatican departments.  



This earliest library and archive of the popes was dispersed in the first half of the thirteenth century for reasons which are still not well known. New collections gathered by the Popes of that century were moved after Pope Boniface’s death first to Perugia, then to Assisi, and finally to Avignon, with serious losses along the way.





Pope Nicholas V





The mid-fourteenth century, after the Popes had returned to Rome from Avignon with Gregory XI in 1378, is the period which may be thought of as the beginning of the modern history of the Vatican Library. It was Nicholas V (1447-1455) who decided that the Latin, Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, which had grown from 350 to around 1,200 from his accession to the time of his death should be made available for scholars to read and study.



Nicholas V (Tomaso Parentucelli) was a scholarly pope. As a young man he had studied in Florence and in Bologna, where he had befriended the celebrated architect Leon Battista Alberti. The Bishop of Bologna, Niccolò Albergati, thought so much of Parentucelli that he made him his personal assistant, and gave him the possibility of broadening his education in various countries throughout Europe.



Once Tomaso Parentucelli had become pope it was only natural for him to enlarge the Vatican Library. To the existing collection, Nicholas V added his own private collection, and gathered everything together in one large hall in the Vatican Palace – this was to be the first nucleus of the Vatican Library. In his eight years of pontificate, Nicholas V worked to enlarge the Library by purchasing important manuscripts and by having others copied from originals in other libraries. On his death the Library was already the largest in Europe.





Pope Sixtus IV





The next popes continued the work of Nicholas V. Sixtus IV (1471-1484), with the Bull (Ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae, June 15, 1475), nominated a librarian and provided the Library with the necessary financial support. The Library was moved to the ground floor of a building that had already been refurbished by Nicholas V, with an entrance from the Cortile dei Pappagalli and a façade on the cortile del Belvedere. The Pope had the rooms decorated by some of the best painters of the time. There were four rooms, respectively called Bibliotheca Latina and Bibliotheca Graeca (for works in these two languages); Bibliotheca Secreta (for manuscripts which were not directly available to readers, including certain precious ones); and Bibliotheca Pontificia (for the papal archives and registers). The librarian was assisted by three aides and by a bookbinder. Books were read on site under the discipline of strict regulations; but loans were also made.



At present the Vatican Library preserves over 180,000 manuscripts (including 80,000 archival units), 1.6 million volumes, about 8,400 incunabula (books or pamphlets printed, not handwritten, before the year 1501), over 300,000 coins and medals, 150,000 prints, drawings and engravings and over 150,000 photographs.





Monsignor Cesare Pasini





 Not content with researching the history of this august institution from books and the Internet, this journalist decided to interview Monsignor Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Vatican Library.



A 60-year-old ecclesiastic, Msgr Pasini is a man of great experience and profound learning. Graduating in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, he has taught Literature and Patristics in seminaries across Northern Italy, and then worked for many years in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, one of the most renowned libraries in the world, founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo in 1603.



Pasini dedicated 20 years of his life to that Library, where he eventually become vice-prefect. Thanks to his specialisation in Greek Paleography, he has edited a number of publications for the Ambrosian Library, releasing much material that had previously been unpublished. Pasini was also instrumental in renovating the Library, and modernising it with the latest Information Technology.



With all this experience behind him, he was eventually called to Rome to help direct the Pope’s own library in 2007.





Monsignor Pasini, does the Vatican Library contain the greatest number of books in the world?



In terms of the sheer number of volumes and documents, the Vatican Library is not the largest in the world. There are National Libraries of some countries that amass everything that is published, without any distinction. In this way these libraries have collected a quantity of volumes that is significantly superior to the amount we have here. However, in terms of the historical and scientific value of the books and documents we have here, we can safely say without a shadow of doubt that this is the most important Library on the face of the earth.





The Vatican Library was re-opened on 14 September 2010 after three years of restoration. What renovations were performed?



We undertook a series of very important changes. First of all we modernised many facilities within the Library, and overhauled and upgraded our hardware and software.



We also renovated the actual building. We added new rooms and refurbished the old ones by consolidating the foundations and the main walls of the storerooms where the documents are held and where the laboratories are. We also renovated the electrical system, and the systems that control air conditioning, humidity, fire protection and so on.



A lot was done to counter security breaches: we updated the system that controls the movements of books and people within the Library. All the books have been tagged electronically; the tag sets of an alarm should the book be removed from the Library without our permission.



We also upgraded our telematics, and this enables us to streamline the exchange of information with other libraries around the world.





Priceless manuscripts





How many people work at the Library?



Currently, there are ninety people who work full time for the Library, plus another twenty who work either part time or occasionally, but we are also blessed with a large number of volunteers.





What is your specific role as Prefect?



The Prefect is the person whose task it is to guide the Library as a whole; he can be likened to the managing director of a company. The Prefect must oversee all the works, the programming, the contacts with scholars, with external institutions and with the personnel here in the Library, even though this last task is specifically that of the Vice-Prefect.





The Library also contains an impressive number of priceless and historically significant manuscripts. But what exactly is a manuscript?



A manuscript is a hand-written document, as distinct from documents that are printed or reproduced through other means, such as books, e-books or photographs.



This means that even contemporary documents can be classified as manuscripts. In the Library, however, the main bulk of our manuscripts are those dating from before the invention of the printing press. In this sector our collection is second to none in the world.





Which are your most prized manuscripts?



Practically all of them are of great value, however, some are inestimable. Our most prized possession is currently the Bodmer Papyrus 14-15, dated between the years 170-220 AD. This is the oldest manuscript of most of the Gospels of St John and St Luke, and contains the oldest written version of the Lord’s Prayer. Its value for Biblical scholars is therefore immense. Other codices of enormous value for humanity are: the oldest known example of St Peter’s two Letters (Bodmer  Papyrus 8), the so-called ‘Codex B’; one of the two surviving fourth-century Bibles (Vat. gr. 1209); the ‘Codex Claromontanus’ (Vat. lat. 7223); one of the oldest known Palaeo-Slav manuscripts (Vat. gr. 2502); and many other codices as well.



Besides these religious manuscripts we also have a huge number of literary and philosophical codices in Latin, as well as ancient Jewish manuscripts, ancient copies of the Koran, and other very important documents in Turkish, Sanskrit, Chinese, Syriac, Armenian and Coptic, in other words, from all parts of the world.





Generous donors





The twenty-two Bodmer Papyri were discovered in Egypt in 1952; how did the Vatican Library come to posses some of them?



Manuscripts of this kind often end up in the market where they are auctioned at astronomical prices. The Vatican simply cannot afford to buy them all, so they end up in the possession of governments of wealthy nations or of private individuals. However, Divine Providence often comes to our aid here. There are a number of wealthy people who are sensitive to spiritual values. These people often feel the urge to donate to us these important testimonies from the past because they know that this is the best way to preserve them for posterity.



This is the way Bodmer Papyrus 14-15 came to our possession. A wealthy American Catholic purchased it and then donated it to Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.



What is striking about his donation is that, besides the enormous significance of the object, he requested that the name of the donor remain anonymous. The only condition he set was that the hall where the document was to be preserved should be called Mater Verbi (Mother of the Word), as the papyrus contained parts of the Gospel of John, the Evangelist who identified Christ with the Word. However, we felt that it was not right to ignore his name, so under Mater Verbi we also added the name of the donor: Frank J. Hanna III.



The humidity in this hall is specially monitored as papyri can easily be damaged by high levels of humidity.





Is it expensive to consult the Library?



Since its inception entrance to the Library is free. The Holy See has always spent huge sums to preserve and increase the Library, and it has done this because it is aware of the enormous value of knowledge and culture for the spiritual development of humanity.





In practice, however, not everyone can enter the Library.



Because of the enormous number of requests, we are forced to restrict entry to qualified people: researchers, qualified scholars; university professors, and university graduates specializing in some area of research requiring access to this Library.



We do not check out books, although with authorization from the Vatican Secretary of State museums and other libraries can borrow books, manuscripts, coins or medals for special exhibits.



The only person allowed to check out a book is the Pope. Occasionally, he has requested specific volumes, which were promptly delivered to his office. After all, it’s his library.





An what about all the others?



We are working on something huge: the digitization of all our manuscripts so that anyone may access them through the Internet.



An enterprise of this kind requires powerful computers, specialized personnel, and at least ten years work. If we manage to achieve this, then anyone will be able to consult the whole content of the Vatican Library from the comfort of their homes simply by using a PC connected to the Internet, thus saving oneself the trouble and expense of travelling to Rome.