This library's closed for the summer

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Summer is library time. Whether for summer reading assignments or vacation leisure, books figure prominently in these months.

However, there is one library you won't be able to visit this month. Or any month for the next three years.

The Vatican Library closes on July 14 for major renovations desperately needed on its 16th century building. The situation is so dire that they did not have time to relocate many of the 1.6 million books and additional materials. Most have been put into storage. (Much of the library has been archived on film or microfiche over the years and is still accessible for authorized research.)

Church records - the earliest written on papyrus - have been kept since the first centuries. However, there was no formal repository or order to the archives for hundreds of years. According to Vatican records, many of these were lost or dispersed, especially when the papal court was moved to Avignon, France, during the 14th century.

Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) is considered the founder of the modern Vatican Library. When he was elected, there were about 350 manuscripts in the papal collection. To this he added his own personal collection and ordered manuscripts collected from markets across Europe. By the time he died, there were 1,500 manuscripts - including Greek manuscripts - in the archives.

In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV provided an endowment for the library and hired its first librarian, Bartolomeo Platina. Under his leadership, the collection more than doubled.

Pope Sixtus VI hired architect Dominico Fontana in 1587 to construct the very building that now needs renovation. Not only will the foundations of Fontana's building be secured and its floors strengthened, but modern elements such as elevators and air-conditioning will be added. The underground depository is a recent addition.

The library has always been open to scholars. When Pope Nicholas established it, he did so "for the common convenience of the learned." Articles are not commonly removed by scholars today, since copies are easily made. However, in early years, books could be borrowed. But borrowing came with a catch. Books and manuscripts were stored on benches in the library halls and chained in place. Scholars could remove the books, but had to take the chains with them, making it difficult to forget where they had come from.

Besides the books and manuscripts in the library, there are many other items of interest. There is artwork and an extensive collection of coins, medals, maps, along with bronzes and pottery from the catacombs. There is an original Gutenberg Bible and the oldest known manuscript of the Bible on record, the Codex Vaticanus which dates to the fourth century and is inscribed on vellum (calfskin).

Also in the library are the love letters of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn before their marriage in 1533.

A recent acquisition is the second century Bodmer Papyrus, containing substantial sections of the Gospels, donated earlier this year by American Frank Hanna.

The library was separated from the more famous Vatican Secret Archives back in the 17th century, but both are overseen by one Vatican official. That is currently Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, who will continue at his post until Sept. 1, when he will become head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. (He was named to the new post June 25. Bp. Raffaele Farina will succeed him in the library/archives.)

The Vatican Library is a treasure trove of history. It is also a repository of the growth of human knowledge perhaps because its rise coincides with the Renaissance, a time that saw the rebirth of the city of Rome and of culture and art across Europe.

As James Billington, former Librarian of Congress said, "The Vatican Library is the prototypical modern research library of western culture. Surprisingly, its collections are not primarily theological. From its founding ... the Vatican Library consciously pursued an acquisitions policy that focused upon the liberal arts and sciences. Consequently, the library has special strengths in unexpected areas, such as the history of the exact sciences, East Asian languages and literatures, and music history."

Billington added that the library's acquisitions were no accident, but part of a conscious effort by all popes since Nicholas to help humans understand themselves. And how better to "know thyself" than through our cultural artifacts?

As Pope John Paul II said in his 1995 encyclical on faith and reason, "Human beings are both child and parent of the culture in which they are immersed. To everything they do, they bring something which sets them apart from the rest of creation: their unfailing openness to mystery and their boundless desire for knowledge."

The Vatican Library serves as one of the world's largest repositories of that accumulated knowledge.

More information about The Vatican Library is on the Vatican web site: www.vatican.va. Also, for those who might wish to continue their library research, the Knights of Columbus Film Library at St. Louis University contains microfilm of more than 37,000 of the Vatican manuscripts. It can be located at www.slu.edu/libraries/vfl.