Not only an extraordinary
repository of the knowledge of mankind, the Vatican Library also is a
"precious tool" for pontiffs in their governance of the church, Pope
Benedict XVI said as a new exhibit highlighting the 500-year-old
institution opened at the Vatican.
The opening of the show combining state-of-the-art technology with
centuries-old treasures offered the pope the occasion to praise the
library's collection of human thought from antiquity to the 21st
century.
The Vatican Library, he said, "has preserved, since its origins, a
unique and truly 'catholic' and universal openness to all that is
beautiful, good, noble and worthy that humanity has produced over the
course of centuries."
Pope Benedict said in a Nov. 11 letter to the Vatican archivist,
Cardinal Raffaele Farina, that it was important for popes to be able to
avail themselves of the knowledge to be found in the library as they
make decisions regarding the universal church. "It is a precious tool
which the bishop of Rome cannot and will not go without," he said.
In its mission to preserve such heritage, the pope said, the library has
always been open to "all those who search the truth" without any
"confessional or ideological discrimination." In fact, he said, it has
collected works on all aspects of human thought and therefore "is not a
theological or primarily religious library."
But the library is off-limits for most. Only the most highly qualified
and accredited scholars have access to the vast and varied collection of
books, manuscripts and prints that line the Vatican Library's 31 miles
of shelves.
To remedy this for the general public, the exhibit titled, "Know the
Vatican Library: A Story Open to the Future," offers a virtual glimpse
of the papal library.
Open until Jan. 31 in the Braccio Carlo Magno next to St. Peter's
Square, the exhibit is part of the celebration marking the end of a
three-year restoration of the papal library, created in the 15th century
by Pope Nicholas V.
The exhibit was conceived "to allow all those who don't have the
privilege to enter" to get to know the library, Cardinal Farina said at a
news conference at the Vatican Nov. 9. He said the show would
illustrate how the Vatican Library "is the patrimony of all humanity."
Cardinal Farina said Pope Benedict is expected to view the exhibit Dec. 18.
Visitors walk in to a re-creation of the frescoed Sistine Hall, where
video images on the walls show how monks of centuries past toiled at
their desks as they wrote their manuscripts and illuminated them with
exquisite drawings. Visitors can don white gloves and take their turn at
turning the pages of high-quality reproductions of the medieval- and
Renaissance-era volumes.
Another room shows a selection of the manuscripts kept in the library,
most of them reproductions of the invaluable originals. They include a
Book of the Hours in Latin from 1500, Greek Bibles in parchment rolls
and a book by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio.
Original prints and engravings of maps and landscapes of Rome from the
16th, 17th and 18th centuries are followed by original volumes of
printed texts by Galileo, Petrarch, Ludovico Ariosto and Voltaire. An
original 15th-century print by German artist Albrecht Durer can be found
with original drawings for the altar at Rome's Basilica of St. John
Lateran by Baroque architect Francesco Borromini.
The Vatican Library's rich collection of coins and medallions is
represented by original pieces and a video explaining the evolution of
coinage.
An eight-minute video describes the history of the library and offers a
glimpse of the building, its study halls and endless shelving and
describes the contents: some 80,000 manuscripts, nearly 1.6 million
books, approximately 8,400 incunabula and an important coin and
medallion collection of 300,000 pieces.
It also explains how in such a vast network, a misplaced book can be
lost forever. Now, each book can be identified and found through a
system using radio frequencies.
Entrance to the exhibit costs 5 euros and reservations can be made by through the website www.vaticanlibrary.va.
SIC: CNS/INT'L