Vatican Library

The Vatican Library is recognized as one of the largest libraries in the world. Its full name sounds like the Vatican Apostolic Library. It has a rich history, which is covered with mysteries and mysticism, which attracts the attention of people from all over the planet. It is believed that it appeared in the IV century.

The History of the Vatican Library

It was formed when archival documents, scrolls and handwritten church books began to be collected in the Lateran Palace of Rome, which was then the residence of the popes. But the official year of the library's creation is considered to be 1475, when Pope Sixtus IV issued a corresponding bull, that is, a decree sealed with a special seal.

In the sixth century, the Vatican secretary began overseeing the collection of manuscripts, and in the eighth century, a special position of the Vatican librarian appeared. At the beginning of the 17th century, the library had a separate building with secret materials, access to which was restricted for most people. The length of the bookshelves of the Vatican Library is about 85 kilometers. The society says that even the papal curia itself does not fully understand what secrets are kept there.

The secrecy of the Vatican Library

Not everyone is still allowed into the archive.: to get admission to a number of sections, you need to write a motivated request explaining what you want to find in the library. No more than five thousand scientists get inside every year, and they first make inquiries about each of them. Such secrecy generates a lot of rumors about the folios stored in the mysterious library.

In 2012, some of the documents were declassified and put on display to the public at a special exhibition. This exhibition did not so much lift the veil of mystery as it made us wonder what was left "behind the scenes". Among the interesting exhibits of the Vatican Library were such ancient documents as the protocol of Galileo's interrogation, the verdict handed down by Giordano Bruno, and the suicide letter of Marie Antoinette. The exhibits on display have given rise to even more rumors and legends about the artifacts stored on the shelves of this ancient library. Legends attribute to the Vatican Library the possession of the first Bible, secret documents of the Masonic lodge, and even mysterious Native American books that contain evidence of alien visits to Earth.

What secrets does the Vatican Library keep?

Even without taking into account the mysterious conjectures, the library contains really rare bibliographic copies, for example, manuscripts with poems by Virgil, Homer and Aristotle. In addition to a rich collection of books, the Vatican Library has coins dating back more than two thousand years, ancient frescoes and manuscripts. Among the curious exhibits are Botticelli's illustrations for Dante's The Divine Comedy. Despite the fact that the secrets of the library were carefully guarded at all times, some folios were still stolen. In 1996, an American professor of art history was convicted of stealing several pages from an old folio with poems by Petrarch. The only person who can take books outside the library is the Pope. The building is now equipped with multi-level alarm systems.

In 2010, a large-scale project began, during which library manuscripts are digitized and uploaded to the website. https://digi .vatlib.it. The work is mainly carried out with the specimens that are most in demand by scientists, as well as with valuable exhibits that are in danger of loss. Among the digitized manuscripts on the site, you can find, for example, Aztec writings and Japanese watercolor drawings of the 17th century.