Although it had already existed in some form or another, The Vatican Library did not begin to resemble its current form until the mid-1400s under the direction of Pope Nicholas V. It was he who purchased the remains of the Imperial Library of Constantinople after the city was conquered and sacked by the Ottoman Turks. The collection was then cultivated and increased by successive Popes (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015). It may be assumed that The Vatican’s collection is exclusively spiritual, and solely Christian, yet its modern-day collection is exceptionally far-reaching. It now includes historical correspondence, the drawings and notes created by scientists—most notably those of Michelangelo and Galileo—as well as various treaties of multiple kinds (DigitaVaticana.org, n.d.). Not only these, the collection also houses coins, medals, engravings, and photographs (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015), among other items.
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It should then come as no surprise that the Vatican Library has also become a hub of restoration and digitization in recent decades. In addition to digitizing historical works, the Vatican has also made them freely accessible to the general public in a digital format (“Vatican Library Digitizes”, 2015). According to one source, in 2014 the Vatican library even joined forces with the Bodleian Library at Oxford to ensure that the cultural value—and the inherent scarcity of their materials—could be preserved, and to that end have uploaded 1.5 million pages of Hebrew, Greek, and Christian manuscripts to the Bodleian web site (http://bav.bodleian.ox.ac.uk). Among these is a scan of a 1455 Gutenberg Bible (“Two of the world’s great libraries”, 2014). Another source explains that as a solo effort the Vatican digitization has, since 2015, created a digitized collection of 82,000 documents and 4500 manuscripts as part of a fifteen year and 63-million-dollar project (“Vatican Library Digitizes”, 2015).
The process of digitization uses a format known as FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) –which was developed by NASA—and also attaches metadata (information about information). If these efforts persist and blossom, the Vatican library digitization initiative could eventually digitize as many as 40 million pages, equal to 43 petabytes of data (“Vatican Library Digitizes”, 2015).
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References
DigitaVaticana.org. (n.d.). The Manuscripts. Retrieved from http://www.digitavaticana.org/?lang=en
Osmenda, M. (Photographer). 2008, October 27. The Sistine Hall of the Vatican Library [digital image]. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Sistine_Hall_of_the_Vatican_Library_(2994335291).jpg
Two of the world’s great libraries--the Vatican Library in Rome and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University--have scanned and uploaded the first of 1.5 million pages of ancient Hebrew, Greek and early Christian manuscripts as of December 3. (Briefly noted) (Brief article). (2014). The Christian Century, (1), 17. Retrieved from http://libresources.sait.ab.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscpi&AN=edscpi.A357757548&site=eds-live&scope=site
Vatican Apostolic Library. (2015). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vatican-Apostolic-Library
Vatican Library digitizes ancient manuscripts, makes them available for free. (2015). Peregrinations, 5(2), 65. Retrieved from http://libresources.sait.ab.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=112256425&site=eds-live&scope=site
I'm happy that the Vatican library collects secular and spiritual works - was this always the case or is this a more recent development? I visited the Digita Vaticana website and found it engaging and fun to explore. I would be interested to know who has access to the physical collections of this library, though. Is is a closed-stacks collection where only the scholars who are researching the work and digitizing it have access, or is it somewhere tourists can visit? Trinity College in Dublin houses the Book of Kells in its library, which is a mixed open/closed environment that would be great to see in the Vatican.
ReplyDeleteIt's my understanding that you need an pre-approved scholarly reason to access the physical collections.
ReplyDeleteI think your comments on the digitization project is really interesting. The more rare manuscripts that are digitized not only increases access to the materials from all over the world (travel to Italy is expensive!), but also helps to preserve these manuscripts physically, because researchers do not need to make use of (and potentially damage) the physical copies to get the information contained within.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog post. I know a fair amount about the Vatican Library. I think its fascinating, especially the digitizing, I think that's pretty cool. The coolest and most awesome part is how they have so many neat things and pretty ancient things from the library at Constantinople which is the first, or one of the first libraries in the world.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! Loved reading it