III. DIO
NOVO I SUVREMENO DOBA
AEVUM NOVUM AC NOVISSIMUM
THE VATICAN LIBRARY – THE MEMORY OF MANKIND
H.E. FREDRIK VAHLQUIST
Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Croatia
HR - Zagreb, Frankopanska 22
UDK: 027.5 (456.31 Vatikan)
Pregledni članak
Primljeno: 9. I. 2011.
The Church of Rome has possessed archives and collections of books
since the days of the ancient church. Since it regards itself as keeper of the
memory of mankind, archives and libraries have always played a vital role for
the Church. Nicolas V (1447-1455) is regarded as the founder of the public
Vatican Library, but it was Sixtus IV who in 1475 issued the bull formally
founding it. The Library of the Popes continued to grow steadily and between
1587 and 1589 a new library building was erected. Over the centuries the Vatican Library has been enriched with many important, private libraries and collections, such as the Bibliotheca Palatina, the library of the Dukes of Urbino,
Queen Christina of Sweden’s important collection of rare manuscripts in Latin
and Greek, manuscripts and archival papers belonging to the Ottoboni family
and the libraries of the noble Roman families of Borghese and Barberini. At the
end of the 19th century and onwards, the Vatican Library opened up its doors
to scholars and researchers and became known not only as a preserver of treasures, but also as a centre for the active study of them. Modernisation continued
during the 20th century; computerised cataloguing was introduced in 1985 and
since 2002 the Library has had its own website. A regular electronic newsletter
has been published since 2009.
The Roman Catholic Church is the world’s oldest continuously operating organisation, with a current membership of 1.2 billion. It regards itself
as keeper of the memory of mankind. This being so, it is easy to appreciate the vital role played by its archives and libraries over the centuries
and the significant place they retain to this day. Ever since the days of the
ancient church, the Church of Rome has possessed archives and collections
of books. The documents in the archives were listed in records and kept by
the Popes in a Scrinium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae – the ‘book chest’ of
the Holy Roman Church. The manuscripts related mainly to canon law and
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liturgy. Archaeological excavations have shown that Pope Agapitus (535–
536) had a library on the Caelian Hill in Rome. There is also evidence that
Leo III (795–816) had both an archive and a library. Furthermore, catalogues of books survive from the pontificates of Innocent III (1198–1216)
and Boniface VIII (1294–1303).
During the ‘Babylonian captivity’ of the popes in Avignon in southern
France from 1309 to 1376, John XXII (1316–1334) and Clement VI (1342–
1352) built up considerable collections of books, the remnants of which
are now mainly held the Vatican Library but also by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. However, the catalogues of these collections are kept in
the Vatican Secret Archives, in which all archival materials concerning the
history of the Roman Catholic Church have been kept since the beginning
of the seventeenth century. It was Paul V (1605–1621) who in 1611–1614
ordered the archival records of the Church to be collected and, in the Papal
Palace, established the Archivio Segreto Vaticano – the Vatican Secret Archives – about which so many myths have flourished. The oldest evidence
of a papal archive dates from the fourth century. However, as papyrus, a
fragile material, was used for writing on for many centuries, few traces of
this archive have survived. It was only in 1020 that the Papal Chancery began to use parchment, a stronger material made of sheep, goat or calf skin.
The name derives from an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, Pergamon,
where parchment was first widely used. Naturally, much material has also
been lost to the ravages of war, plunder and fire. Major losses also occurred
as the Papal Court moved from place to place, both before and after the
Lateran Palace in Rome became a more or less permanent residence in the
seventh century. The oldest surviving documents in the Vatican Archive are
from the ninth or tenth century.
Since 1614, the library and the archive have been housed in the same
building, leading separate lives but both under the ultimate supervision of
the same Cardinal, who bears the title of Archivist and Librarian Cardinal
of the Holy Roman Church. In June 2007, the Prefect of the Vatican Library, Bishop Raffaele Farina, succeeded Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran in
this position. In conjunction with this, Benedict XVI made Bishop Farina
an Archbishop. Just a few months later, in November 2007, Archbishop
Farina was made a Cardinal, a rank held by all 45 of his predecessors. Don
Cesare Pasini is since 2007 the new Prefect of the Vatican Library. He was
previously Vice-Prefect of the famous Ambrosian Library in Milan.
Nicholas V (1447–1455) is regarded as the founder of the public Vatican Library. He expressed its purpose in the words: Pro communi doctorum
virorum commodo – ‘For the common convenience of learned men’. Prior
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to this, the book collections had been regarded as the private library of the
Popes. Nicholas V was one of the early humanists and embodied in his
person the learned art lover and bibliophile. The library started with 350
Latin manuscripts, mainly for the needs of the Curia. Agents were sent
out in search of manuscripts in Europe and Western Asia. After the fall of
Constantinople in 1453 and the dispersal of its artistic treasures, the bookloving Pope succeeded in acquiring hundreds of priceless manuscripts that
came to form the core of the Vatican Library, which soon became the foremost in Europe. In addition, Nicholas V donated his private collection to
the Vatican Library. At his death, the number of manuscripts is estimated
to have been around 1 300, a third of them in Greek. Considering that the
collections now comprise over 80 000 manuscripts this may not sound a
very impressive figure. However, it was certainly a large collection for the
time. Even though Nicholas V died before the library was completed, it is
his spirit and the environment he created that still characterise the Vatican
Library today.
It was in the time of Nicholas V that Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468)
from Mainz invented an instrument that made it possible to cast movable
metal type. This revolutionary invention soon made it possible to print several hundred copies of a book in considerably shorter time than a scribe had
previously needed to copy a single manuscript. When Nicholas V planned
his library, it was naturally impossible for him to imagine that within a few
decades the mechanical reproduction of books would lead to a veritable
flood of printed material which in turn would demand new library space on
a previously completely unknown scale.
It was Sixtus IV (1471–1484) who, with energy and determination, carried Nicholas V’s plans to fruition. He was known as a grand patron and
protector of the fine arts; the Sistine Chapel is named after him. On 15 June
1475 Sixtus IV issued the bull formally founding the Vatican Library, or
Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana: Ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae et fidei
augmentum – for the decorum of the militant Church and for the dissemination of the faith. In a historical perspective, this library – and therefore the
present Papal Library – is regarded as the fourth. Sixtus IV had the library
enlarged and gave it its own budget. In addition, he made the humanist
Bartolomeo Platina librarian, with a staff of three assistants and a bookbinder. The artist Melozzo da Forli (1438–1494) immortalised this event
in a magnificent fresco, painted in 1477 in the library of Pope Sixtus IV in
the Vatican. The library overlooked the Belvedere courtyard and consisted
of four rooms, each adorned with beautiful frescos, and devoted separately
to Greek manuscripts, Latin manuscripts, especially precious manuscripts
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and, in the fourth room, the Papal Archive and book catalogues. The staff
worked in a fifth, outer room. Manuscripts could be borrowed. The register
of loans from 1475 to 1547 still survives. It appears from this and other
sources that the number of manuscripts increased from just over 2 500 to
3 500 between 1475 and 1481.
The library’s premises were enlarged under Julius II (1503–1513). His
successor, Leo X (1513–1521), who excommunicated Martin Luther in his
last year as Pope, was a man who cared about books. His interest is illustrated by a painting by Raphael in the Uffizi in Florence, which shows the
Pope reading a Bible with great interest and studying the miniatures with
a magnifying glass. He patronised the great artists of the age, including
Michelangelo and Raphael, who were both engaged in the decoration of St
Peter’s Basilica.
1527 was an annus horribilis for Rome and its inhabitants. This was
the year of the ‘Sacco di Roma’, when the city was invaded and sacked by
the Spanish and German troops of Emperor Charles V, whose mercenaries
plundered the Vatican collections.
During the pontificate of Paul III (1534–1549), the office of Cardinal
Librarian, or ‘Librarian of the Holy Roman Church’, to give him his official title, was established. This was in the year 1548 and the office was first
held by Cardinal Marcello Cervini, who later became Pope Marcellus II
(1555). He was the last Pope to retain his baptismal name. Marcellus held
the office of Vicar of Christ for just three weeks before dying.
Under Pius V (1566–1572), a very considerable number of papal documents were successfully brought to Rome, after having been kept in Avignon ever since the ‘Babylonian captivity’ of the Popes there for most of
the fourteenth century. These included 158 papal Registri and the volumes
of documents relating to the Schism.
To deal with the increasingly rapidly growing holdings, Gregory XIII
(1572–1585) decided to find new premises for the library. However, it was
his successor Sixtus V (1585–1590) who put these far-sighted plans into
practice during five short but eventful years. His roots were Croatian, and
his family originated from the Eastern Adriatic Coast. His father was born
in a village near to Bijela in the Bay of Kotor. In order to escape a Turkish
invasion the father moved to Italy and settled in Ancona as a gardener. His
son Felice Peretti, the future Pope, was born at Grottammare in the Papal
States in December 1520.
As a Pope he had grand plans to have Rome “re-built” and immense
sums were spent upon public works, for example bringing water to the
waterless hills in the Acqua Felice, feeding no less than twenty-seven new
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fountains. Also during this few but hectic years the monumental dome of
St. Peter´s was completed. Sixtus V set no limits to his grandiose plans,
carried them through at high speed and indeed achieved impressive results
during his short pontificate.
In 1587–89, this energetic and purposeful Franciscan of Croatian stock
had a new library building erected by architect Domenico Fontana on the
opposite side of the Belvedere courtyard. This attractive court had been
formed at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Bramante built the
long arcades designed to connect the medieval Papal Palace to the south
with the Villa Belvedere in the northern part of the Vatican gardens. Now,
regrettably, the court was cut off forever.
In 1587 the Pope also established a printing works, Tipografia Vaticana.
The purpose was to print an improved edition of Jerome´s Vulgate. Sixtus
V’s Bible was issued from the press in 1590, with a revised version appearing just two years later. It is said to be “as splendid a translation of the Bible
into Latin as the King James version is into English”.
Until the seventeenth century, the Vatican Library acquired relatively
small collections of manuscripts and books through donations, gifts and
purchases. In the course of this century, however, the Pope received three
very large European libraries as ‘donations’: the Palatine library of Heidelberg (1623), the library of the Dukes of Urbino (1657) and the library of
Queen Christina of Sweden (1690).
Bibliotheca Palatina, which had belonged to the Counts Palatine in
Heidelberg, is known in Germany as “die Mutter aller Bibliotheken” (‘the
mother of all libraries’). In the course of the hard contests fought out in
these parts between Catholics and Protestants during the Thirty Years War,
the ancient university town fell into the hands of the Catholic army in
1622. The Catholic army was led by Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria, who
donated the famous library to Gregory XV (1621–1623). However, the
Pope, who had so coveted this booty, died before it reached the eternal
city. The collection was transported by a long caravan of mules across the
Alps and down to Rome, where it arrived in June 1623. His successor on
the Throne of St Peter, Urban VIII (1623–1644), had two rooms leading
to the Sistine Hall furnished to accommodate the great Palatine library.
Being a German library, it contains a large collection of books written
by prominent figures belonging to the Reformation. It is an irony of fate
that the Vatican Library, of all libraries, contains such a rich collection of
books written by the Reformers.
Another important collection absorbed into the Vatican Library at this
time was the famous library of the Dukes of Urbino, with its fine manu837
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scripts. In the absence of an heir and as a result of internal conflicts and
international power play, this important Duchy passed to the States of the
Church, that is to say, the Pope. The great interest of the then Pope, Alexander VII (1655–1667), was art and science. It was he who commissioned
the sculptor Bernini to enclose St Peter’s Square with curving colonnades
composed of four rows of columns.
Queen Christina of Sweden’s (1626–1689) famous collection of old
and rare manuscripts – Fondo Reginense – occupies a special place among
the vast holdings of the Vatican Library. Christina is remembered as one
of the most important political figures of her time. She is also noted as one
of the most significant patrons of art and literary culture of her day. But
this remarkable woman is above all remembered for her abdication from
the Swedish throne in 1654 and her subsequent conversion to Catholicism.
This critical decision led her to leave Sweden and to spend the major part
of her adult life in Rome, closely connected to the court of the Roman
pontiffs. She would later be the first foreign monarch to rest alongside the
Popes in the crypt of St. Peter’s.
Christina arrived in Rome in December 1655, bringing with her an impressive and extremely valuable collection of art, sculptures, manuscripts,
books, coins and medals. When she died on 19 April 1689, her good friend
of many years, Cardinal Decio Azzolino, was left her sole heir. However, he
was already marked by illness and died just seven weeks later. A nephew of
his, Marquis Pompeo Azzolino, now inherited the Queen’s worldly goods
but immediately disposed of most of the inheritance, apparently mainly so
as to be able to pay the legacies the Queen had made in her will and the
large debts she had left.
The library was acquired by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni who shortly afterwards became Pope, taking the name Alexander VIII (1689–1691). In a
truly magnanimous gesture, the Pope donated the bulk of Queen Christina’s
fine collection of manuscripts to the Vatican Library. The collection consisted of over 2 300 manuscripts, mainly in Latin and Greek. The core of
this Fondo Reginense was made up of the many manuscripts brought back
to Sweden as booty in the final phase of the Thirty Years War in 1647–48.
The Queen had summoned the philologist Nicolaus Heinsius to her court,
and sent him and librarian Isaac Vossius abroad in search of manuscripts. In
addition, in 1648–50 the Queen acquired whole collections of manuscripts,
including those of the prominent international lawyer Hugo Grotius, Isaac
Vossius’s father Gerard, and in particular the collection of unusually valuable manuscripts assembled by Parisian collector, Paul Petau and his son
Alexander. Somewhat later she also bought the collection of French physi838
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The Vatican Library and the Apostolic Palace
cians Pierre and Jean Bourdelot, which primarily contained medical and
philosophical manuscripts but also quite a number of Italian manuscripts
acquired by Jean Bourdelot during his travels in Italy. Pierre Bourdelot was
the Queen’s physician and close friend.
Only a few manuscripts in the Fondo Reginense are of Swedish origin. These include a volume concerning the abdication of the Queen at the
Riksdag in Uppsala in June 1654. There is also an Uppsala manuscript on
the life and miracles of St Erik, from the Royal Library at Tre Kronor Castle in Stockholm.
Since many years the Swedish Institute in Rome maintain close ties with
the Vatican Library, which some 15 years ago developed into a creative collaboration on the cataloguing of Queen Christina´s Latin manuscripts, the
Codices Reginenses.
Upon the initiative of the Embassy of Sweden to the Holy See the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg´s Memorial Fund in May 2008 donated a sum
of SEK 4.6 million for the restoration and conservation of Queen Christina’s
manuscripts. In addition King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has personally
granted funds from King Gustaf VI Adolf’s Fund for Swedish Culture to support this extensive and time-consuming project, which will preserve a common cultural heritage of significance for humanity for future generations.
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The three major collections described above have to a great extent been
kept intact. This is quite simply in keeping with a basic but important rule
in library science. Where the magnificent Palatine library is concerned,
moreover, it was the express wish of the donor that this should be done.
In the course of the following century too – the eighteenth century –
significant collections of manuscripts and books were added. Thus, Clement XI (1700–1721) enriched the Vatican Library above all with oriental
manuscripts and he is regarded today as the man who laid the foundation
of the Library’s great holdings in this specific area. Under Benedict XIV
(1740–1758), two more major collections were incorporated into the Library, the collection of Marquess Alessandro Gregorio Capponi in 1746
and two years later the collection of Pope Alexander VIII (1689–1691).
The latter collection bears the Pope’s family name, Ottoboni.
At the end of this century, moreover, Pius VI (1775–1799) and his righthand man Cardinal Giovanni Archinto created the major collection of 18 000
engravings by masters from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It was during this period that work began in all earnest on cataloguing the manuscripts
in a more systematic and professional way. However, this project was never
completed because of a fire in 1768, which destroyed the draft of the fourth
volume and the copies of the first three parts. Two additional Cabinets were
created in the eighteenth century that have nothing to do with books, namely
the collection of coins and medals or Numismatic Cabinet (Gabinetto Numismatico) in 1738 and the Museum of Sacred Art (Museo Sacro) in 1755.
In 1767 the Museum of Secular Art (Museo Profano) came into being. The
latter two museums now belong to the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani).
The Age of Enlightenment led to an interest in other ancient and modern cultures. In the Vatican Library, particular attention was devoted to
manuscripts and books from the Arab world, the Far East and America.
The much later acquisition of Stefano Borgia’s collection in 1902 was particularly significant in this area.
French troops plundered Rome and the Vatican in 1797 and 1809, taking
valuable paintings and sculptures back to Paris along with large quantities
of books and manuscripts. Most of these were returned after the Congress
of Vienna in 1815. Where printed books were concerned, the collection actually grew during the French occupation, as the French made the Vatican
Library a national library. It thus became the repository of all the collections belonging to the Italian monasteries closed by the French.
In 1824 Pope Leo XII purchased en bloc the library of Count Leopoldo
Cicognara and added it to the Vatican Library. This fine collection of 5 000
books on art and antiquity is the first of its kind.
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In 1891 the great collection of manuscripts that had belonged to the famous noble Roman Borghese family was added. A collection whose treasures include some manuscripts from the old papal collection of Avignon,
as well as a number of chalcographic engravings. It was Camillo Borghese
(1552–1621) who laid the foundation for the family’s wealth. He became
Pope in 1605, taking the name Paul V. During his pontificate, the Basilica
of St Peter was completed, the Vatican Library was extended and enlarged
and works were undertaken to beautify the city of Rome. It was this Pope,
moreover, who created the great art collections that were later purchased by
the Italian State and are now housed in the Villa Borghese in Rome.
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Library grew by the
incorporation of three very significant collections. The first was that of the
Barberini family in 1902. It consists of more than 11,000 Latin, Greek and
Oriental manuscripts as well as over 36,000 printed books, including 320
incunabula. A cornerstone of the book collection is Johann Gutenberg’s
major work, the 42-line Bible in Latin printed on parchment at Mainz in
ca. 1454. Although it is one of the first books ever printed it has rightly
been acclaimed for it´s high aesthetic and technical quality. This family library was built up in the seventeenth century, when the Barberinis
were one of Rome’s leading families. The baroque library itself, including bookshelves and all, was physically moved to the Vatican, where it
has been restored and recently reassembled to show what a seventeenth
century library could look like.
In 1921 the Vatican Library received the rich collection of rare books
built up over many years in the nineteenth century by the bibliophile Gian
Francesco De Rossi. With a view to improving relations with the Vatican,
the Italian Government in 1923 donated the splendid Chigi library to the
Pope. This impressive collection had for a long time been kept in the Chigi
Palace, which had now passed into government use. The donation consisted
of no less than 3 000 manuscripts, 300 incunabula and 30 000 other printed
books. Other private collectors in Italy also donated valuable collections to
the Vatican Library during the last century. One example is the splendid library of Tammaro De Marinis, containing manuscripts and books in Italian
bindings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries – Fondo De Marinis. To
give another example, Enrico Cerulli donated important collections of Persian and Ethiopian manuscripts, which are now known as Cerulli persiani
and Cerulli etiopici respectively.
The pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903) was an important turning point
in the history of the Vatican Library. During this quarter of a century work
began on modernising the Vatican Library and opening it up to independent
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researchers. It was also this Pope who decided, in 1880, to open the doors
of the Vatican Secret Archives to researchers. The Church thus came to
serve both culture and research. In 1884 a school for palaeography, diplomatics (document studies) and archival science was founded.
The Prefect of the Vatican Library during these eventful years 1895–
1914 was a German Jesuit named Franz Ehrle. He realised that the enormous collections of printed material and manuscripts that had accumulated by this time required better organisation. Ehrle himself had travelled
widely and visited many libraries in order to form an opinion on how to
manage, look after and catalogue large collections. It was he who promoted
the idea of a scientific inventory of the Vatican’s manuscripts, which is still
used to this day. Ehrle was in many ways a pioneer. As early as 1890 he
established a special laboratory for conservation and restoration of books,
the first of its kind in the world. He was also one of the prime movers behind an international conference on the restoration of books, manuscripts
and engravings. It was organized at the Abbey of St. Gall in 1898, and is
now seen as the beginning of the modern era of book restoration. Ehrle
also created a photographic laboratory in 1907 for preserving manuscripts
through reproduction. It was extremely innovative for its time, featuring,
among other things, an experimental “scientific laboratory” dedicated to
ultraviolet, infra-red and X-ray photography. He also opened a new reading
room for printed books, the Sala Leonina, which, though lacking the beautiful frescoes of the old reading room, is a true reference library with over
75 000 biographies, bibliographies, reference works, etc. From the time of
Prefect Ehrle and onwards, the Vatican Library became known not only as
a preserver of treasures, but also as a centre for the active study of them.
Monsignor Ratti is the only one of the Vatican Library’s many Prefects who has advanced all the way to the Throne of St Peter. In 1888 he
became Junior Librarian and in 1907 Prefect of the celebrated Ambrosian
Library in Milan. Seven years later he was appointed to the equivalent
post at the Vatican Library. Following a three-year interlude as papal
nuncio in Warsaw, he was named Archbishop of Milan in 1921 and made
a Cardinal at the same time. But the very next year, Cardinal Ratti was
elected head of the Catholic Church, adopting the name Pius XI (1922–
1939). When, after the Conclave, he re-entered the library where he had
spent so much of his life surrounded by manuscripts and books, he said:
“We have returned to our old love.”
The modernisation of the Vatican Library continued under this bookloving Pope. The future Vice Prefect and Cardinal Eugène Tisserant
(1884–1972), was sent on a study visit to the United States. As a result,
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American library experts were called in to supervise technical alterations.
These were largely financed by the Carnegie Foundation. Now the Vatican Library obtained modern steel stacks, noiseless book lifts and multiple card catalogues. The finishing touch was the establishment in 1934 of
a special school for printed books and library management – the Vatican
School of Library Science (Scuola Vaticana di Biblioteconomia). Just as
the expansion of the Turks in the 1450s had led to the dispersal of many
Byzantine manuscript collections, the turmoil caused by the First World
War in the east resulted in many fine libraries appearing on the antiquarian
market. Pius XI sent two Prelates east on a purchasing expedition. One of
them was Monseigneur Tisserant, who has already been mentioned, and
the other a specialist in Slavic literature, Don Cirillo Korolevski. Together
they roamed through Trieste, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sofia and Istanbul. There
they parted ways, with the French priest continuing to Syria, Palestine and
Egypt while Don Cirillo enjoyed a productive expedition among Greek,
Yugoslav, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Jewish and Armenian antiquarian
book dealers. In Bessarabia, Don Cirillo is said to have filled a whole cartload with old Russian folios in a single day. All in all, he sent eighty crates
of books back to Rome in the course of this journey. Monseigneur Tisserant
was no less successful, bringing home about a hundred unique manuscripts
in various Levantine and Slavic languages.
In 1933 the Vatican Library acquired the important collection of the
English archaeologist Thomas Ashby, who had assembled more than 1,000
drawings and 7,000 prints.
During the Second World War, the Library remained closed for about
one academic year in 1943-44. But it also became a refuge for other book
collections, religious or otherwise, which were brought there to avoid destruction. These included those of the Abbey of Monte Cassino and several
archival collections of noble Roman families. In 1944, the library of the
Seminary of Frascati entered the Vatican Library, with the collection of
Cardinal Stuart, Duke of York.
In later years, many other collections were acquired, including that of
the Piedmontese collector Federico Patetta, the Boncompagni Ludovisi
family, the Persian and Ethiopian manuscripts and books of Enrico Cerulli
and the personal library and correspondence of Don Giuseppe De Luca.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century a project began to compile
a catalogue of all the printed books in the Vatican Library. The US Library
of Congress served as a model and the staff who were directly involved
in the project were sent to Washington DC to study the new cataloguing
system. On their return to Rome, they were accompanied by a number of
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American colleagues, who assisted them in the vast task of compiling the
catalogue. A new card catalogue covering all the Library’s printed books
was begun in 1929. Computerized cataloguing was introduced in 1985,
during the prefecture of the Dominican Leonard E. Boyle. Between 1994
and 1996, the main entries in the entire card catalogue were converted into
electronic format.
Since 1985, the catalogue of printed books has been accessible in electronic form. The electronic catalogue also covers more than 10 000 engravings and woodcuts. Since 2002, the Holy See has had its own website – www.vatican.va. Up-to-date information about the Vatican Library
is available via a link from this page and also by www.vaticanlibrary.va.
Since 2009 the Vatican Library and its Prefect Don Pasini is also regularly
publishing an electronic Newsletter.
One of the oldest and greatest treasures in the Vatican Library is an almost complete Bible from the fourth century, the oldest existing Greek Bible anywhere in the world. This Codex Vaticanus (Codex B, Vat.gr.1209) is
written on parchment, in all probability in Egypt. Quite apart from its age,
it is one of the most beautiful examples of Biblical Uncial script, a rounded
script using capital letters that was mainly employed from the fourth to
the sixth centuries. When it found its way into the library of the Popes is
unclear, but it was probably in the time of Nicholas V. At any event, it is
included in the list of holdings compiled in 1481. Like other extremely rare
manuscripts, it is kept in loose leaf form in a special folder or under glass.
As recently as November 2006, a generous gift from an American donor, Frank Hanna, enabled the Vatican Library to acquire a papyrus containing the world’s oldest manuscript with parts of two different Gospels,
namely, St Luke’s and St John’s. It was written around 200 AD.
Anyone acquainted with the historical bonds between Sweden and
Italy knows the importance of Saint Birgitta (1303–1373) and the strong
link between her and the See of Saint Peter. This remarkable women and
mother of eight children arrived in Rome in 1350 and lived her last 19
years in what is now Casa di Santa Brigida at Piazza Farnese. Birgitta became famous for her heavenly revelations, Revelationes celestes. The first
complete Latin edition of these revelations was printed at Lübeck in 1492
by Bartholomaeus Ghotan. Birgitta founded the “Order of the Most Holy
Saviour”, which was approved by Pope Urban V in 1370. It is now active
in four continents and has more than 60 convents. Mother Tekla Famiglietti is its charismatic and dynamic Abbess General since 1978. In 1391
Birgitta Birgersdotter was canonized and in 1999 John Paul II proclaimed
her Patron Saint of Europe.
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On the occasion of the sixth centenary of the canonization of Saint Birgitta of Sweden the Vatican Library in 1991 enriched the events in her honour with an exhibition “Rosa rorans bonifatem”. On display in Vestibolo
del Salone Sistino were i.a. copies of her Revelationes in manuscript and in
early printed copies. Among other things also a unique and richly annotated
missal from the hospital of Saint Birgitta in Rome.
Benedict XVI and Fredrik Vahlquist in June 2008 with a facsimile (2008) of the
first printed Swedish book of prayer Horae de Domina (Vadstena Abbey, 1495).
The Vatican Library’s manuscript collection has retained its status as
the largest in the world. It now numbers 80 000 manuscripts. In addition,
there are 100 000 other archival items of various kinds. The Library owns
1.6 million printed books, 8 400 incunabula (books printed before 1501),
including 65 printed on parchment, over 150 000 engravings, woodcuts
and drawings, 150 000 photographs and 300 000 coins and medals. The
Medagliere may after its most recent acquisitions be considered one of
the world’s richest and most precious collections of modern medals. The
incunabula in the Library of the Pope constitute one of the most important
such collections in the world. With its ca 8,400 books printed before 1501
the Vatican Library possesses the fourth largest in the world after the Bavarian State Library in Munich (19,900), the British Library in London
(12,500) and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (12,000). The
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incunabula of the Vatican Library represent essential resources for international scholarship not only in the field of the history of the book, but in
the field of cultural history in general. Therefore, time was long overdue to
compile a catalogue of Vatican incunabula.
A generous donation offered by the Most Reverend Dean of the Cathedral of Stockholm, Åke Bonnier, enabled the Vatican Library to finally
initiate the Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae Incunabulorum Catalogues
(BAVIAC), the Vatican incunabula catalogue in September 2009. This important project will be realized in two phases. The first has been limited
to a catalogue with essential bibliographical data. It was completed in
September 2010, one year earlier than originally planned and just in time
for the reopening of the Vatican Library. It was welcomed by the international scholarly community as an important achievement. For the first
time the Vatican incunabula are now visible in the On Line Public Access
Catalogue (OPAC) of the Library of the Pope and hence also accessible
to scholars all over the world for study and research. In the beginning of
2011 the Vatican Library was able to enter into the second phase of the
incunabula project. After it has been finished BAVIAC will not only offer
additional bibliographical information, but also detailed information regarding specific features of the individual copies preserved in the Vatican
collections. With his generous donation Dean Bonnier has, according to
the Head of the Printed Books Department (Dipartimento degli Stampati),
Dr. Adalbert Roth, “not only rendered a great service to the international
scholarly community, but also given an outstanding example of lived ecumenism, which has embellished the Vatican incunabula project with an
unexpected spiritual dimension.”
Researchers and scholars from all over the world make their way to the
Vatican Library each year to study the rare manuscripts and books. The
beautiful reading room in the Manuscript Department – Sala Manoscritti
– has space for 35 people while the corresponding room in the Printed
Books Department – Sala Leonina – has space for 200 readers. Despite
its size and wide-ranging activities, the Vatican Library has only around
100 employees. The size, age, areas of specialisation and quality together
make the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana not just one of the world’s oldest
libraries but also one of the very finest from both the researcher’s and the
book historian’s point of view.
After having been closed for three years for extensive repairs and alterations, the Vatican Library reopened its doors to scholars on 20 September 2010 and was officially reopened on 9 November 2010. To mark
the occasion, at the same time a major exhibition was opened on the vital
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importance of letters and words for the progress of mankind: “Knowing the
Vatican Library. A History Open to the Future”. This exhibition presented
the fascinating history of the Vatican Library and its rich and impressive
collections, using the latest audiovisual technology. In connection with this
event a beautiful, knowledgeable and profusely illustrated catalogue was
published with Vice-Prefect Dr. Ambrogio M. Piazzoni and Dr Barbara Jatta, Curator of the Prints Cabinet (Gabinetto delle Stampe), as its editors. A
three-day international conference on the library as a place of research and
as an institution at the service of scholarship was also held. It was attended
by three hundred participants.
On the occasion of the official reopening of the Vatican Library Benedict XVI sent a message to Cardinal Raffaele Farina in which he emphasised the vital importance of the Library to the Church and its leadership:
“The Apostolic Library,” writes the Pope, “is an integral part of the means
required to carry out the Petrine Ministry.” It is thus “rooted in the exigencies of the Church’s governance.” In fact, “far from being merely the result
of the daily accumulation of a refined bibliophilia and the random collection of works, the Vatican Library is a valuable means – which the Bishop
of Rome cannot and does not intend to give up – which enables him, when
considering problems in a perspective of long duration, to perceive the distant roots of situations and their evolution in time.”
Benedict XVI being himself a man of learning, an author, a prominent scholar and a booklover paid a special visit to the Vatican Library on
18 December 2010. Cardinal Farina and Prefect Don Pasini accompanied
the Holy Father through the newly refurbished library. The Pope showed
a great interest in the work that had been accomplished over the previous
three years. But he was also very interested in seeing some of the treasures
from the Library´s collections, that were on display on this special day,
including some rare manuscripts from Queen Christina´s collection and the
magnificent Barberini copy of Johann Gutenberg´s famous 42-line Bible in
Latin printed on parchment in about 1454.
As if planned by Divine Providence a ray of sunlight broke through
the clouds and shone with beauty, when the Holy Father at the end of his
visit to the Vatican Library gave us his final blessing. Cardinal Farina said
afterwards: “This is a dream which I have been nurturing for a long time, a
dream that now came true in the best possible way, as a Christmas gift for
each one of us.” All of us who had the great privilege of being present on
this memorable occasion can only agree.
After years of planning and preparations and three years of extensive
and indeed expensive refurbishments of the old library building, it is now
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continuing its important task of giving service to researchers and scholars
from all over the world using modern and advanced electronic techniques
and always remembering its important humanistic mission as the memory
of mankind. A modern library open to the future!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BESKOW, PER – LANDEN, ANNETTE (ed.), Birgitta av Vadstena – Pilgrim och profet 1303-1373. En jubileumsbok 2003. Värnamo 2003.
BERGQUIST, LARS, Saint Birgitta. Lund 2000.
Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Città del Vaticano 2010.
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Libri e luoghi all’inizio del terzo millennio –
Vatican Library. Books and Places of the Third Millennium. Città del Vaticanao 2011.
BIGNAMI ODIER, JEANNE, La Bibliothèque Vaticane de Sixte IV à Pie XI
– Recherches sur l’histoire des collections de manuscrits, Studi e Testi. Città del
Vaticano 1973.
Fifth Centenary of the Vatican Library – Catalogue of the Exhibition. Rome 1975.
FRITZ, BIRGITTA, Suecia i Vatikanarkivet, Arkiv hemma och ute, Årsbok för
Riksarkivet och Landsarkiven. Västervik 1995.
GUALA, GENNARO – PIAZZONI, AMBROGIO M. – RITA, ANDREINA
(ed.), Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana - Libri e luoghi all’inizio det terzo millennio;
Vatican Library - Books and Places at the Beginning of the Third Millennium.
Città del Vaticano 2011.
Guide des Musées et de la Cité du Vatican. Città del Vaticano 2005.
JATTA, BARBARA, The Vatican Library: An Historical Library Today. Lecture at the Royal Library in Stockholm, 7 May 2007.
JATTA, BARBARA – PIAZZONI, AMBROGIO M. (ed). Conoscere la Biblioteca Vaticana – “Una storia aperta al futuro”. Città del Vaticano 2010.
MANFREDI, ANTONIO (ed.), Le origini della Biblioteca Vaticana tra
Umanesimo e Rinascimento (1447-1534). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Città
del Vaticano 2010.
MUTNJAKOVIĆ, ANDRIJA, Arhitektonika pape Siksta V – The Architectonics
of Pope Sixtus V. Zagreb 2010.
NATALINI, TERZO, The Vatican Secret Archives. Città del Vaticano 2000.
NILSSON NYLANDER, EVA (ed.), Rosa rorans bonitatem – Exhibition celebrating the sixth centenary of the canonization of Saint Birgitta of Sweden. Città
del Vaticano 1991.
NILSSON NYLANDER, EVA – VIAN, PAOLO, I manoscritti latini della
regina Christina alla Biblioteca Vaticana: storia, stato e ricerche sul fondo, in
Christina di Svezia e Roma. Atti del Simposio tennto all´Istituto Svedese di Studio
Classici a Roma, 5-6 ottobre 1995. Börje Magnusson (ed). Stockholm 1999.
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RODÉN, MARIE-LOUISE, Queen Christina. Lund 1999.
RODÉN, MARIE-LOUISE (ed.), AB AQUILONE – Nordic Studies in Honour
and Memory of Leonard E. Boyle, O.P. Kristianstad 2000.
STENIUS, GÖRAN, Vatikanen. Helsingfors 1947.
VAHLQUIST, FREDRIK, När Birgittas hus i Rom blev bokförlag och tryckeri. Ur jubileumsboken Birgitta av Vadstena – Pilgrim och profet 1303-1373.
Värnamo 2003.
VAHLQUIST, FREDRIK, Vatikanens berömda bibliotek – en kort historik. Ur
Sällskapet Bokvännernas i Finland jubileumsbok. Helsingfors 2008.
VAHLQUIST, FREDRIK, Sweden´s oldest printed prayer book – a unique incunabulum from Vadstena Abbey´s printing press, From Horae de Domina – Vår
Frus tider, Skara stiftshistoriska sällskap, Johnny Hagberg (ed.). Värnamo 2008.
SAŽETAK - SUMMARIUM
VATIKANSKA BIBLIOTEKA – PAMĆENJE ČOVJEČANSTVA
Rimska je Crkva posjedovala od najranijih vremena arhive i zbirke knjiga,
koji su – kako je Crkva smatrala da je čuvarica pamćenja čovječanstva – uvijek
igrali vitalnu ulogu za Crkvu. Nikola V. (1447.-1455.) smatra se utemeljiteljem
javne Vatikanske biblioteke, ali je Siksto IV. bio taj koji ju je bulom 1475. formalno utemeljio. Papinska biblioteka je narasla i između 1587. i 1589. podignuta je
za nju nova zgrada. Biblioteka je bila obogaćivana važnim privatnim knjižnicama,
poput Bibliotheca Palatina, knjižnicom vojvoda iz Urbina, važnom zbirkom
rijetkih latinskih i grčkih manuskripata švedske kraljice Kristine, manuskriptima i arhivalijama obitelji Ottoboni, kao i knjižnicama rimskih plemićkih obitelji
Borghese i Barberini. Od kraja XIX. st. Vatikanska se biblioteka otvorila znanstvenicima te je tako postala i studijski centar. Modernizacija je nastavljena u XX.
st., kompjutoriziranje kataloga je uvedeno 1985. a od 2002. ima i svoj website.
Redoviti elektronički bilten se objavljuje od 2009.
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Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana preservs lots of old and valuable documents
but the most important one for Croatian people is the letter of Pope John VIII:
„Dilecto filio Branimir - Dear son Branimir“ sent to Croatian Duke Branimir on
June 7, 879 from Rome. (BAV, Reg. Vat. I,“Epistolae Ioannis“, ep. 191., fol. 73)
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