Navigating the Vatican Library repositories

Abstract

An institution of ancient origin, the Vatican Apostolic Library holds a diverse and complex collection of documents that reflect its rich institutional history, distributed among its various collections and institutional archives. This multifaceted heritage, comprising traditional and digital resources, stands as a valuable testimony to the active role of the Library in the international cultural context. This article aims to provide a general overview of these resources and their potential historical significance, focusing on the last century and presenting some significant episodes in the institution’s history.

Keywords

Vatican Library archival resources history of libraries and library science principles of library and information science

An institution of ancient origin, the Vatican Apostolic Library is an outstanding means for the Church to contribute to the development and dissemination of culture, in support of the work of the Apostolic See. Through its various sections, it is responsible for collecting and preserving a vast patrimony of learning and art and of making it available to scholars in search of truth. (Pope Francis, 2022)
It was with these words that Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, defined his library, which gathers and makes available to scholars from around the world the library collections of the Popes.

The Vatican Apostolic Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) is ‘Vatican’ as it is located on the Vatican Hill in the heart of Vatican City, and ‘Apostolic’ as it was originally established as a personal endowment of the Popes. This venerable institution has a long history: evidence of papal library collections can be traced back to the 4th century as a scrinium (Library) of books, but the institutional history of the Vatican Library began in the mid 15th century. A papal collection already existed ‘pro communi doctorum virorum commodo’ (‘for the common use of men of science’), as a pontifical brief testifies (Pope Nicholas V, 1451),¹ and Bignami Odier (1973), Manfredi (2010) and Vircillo Franklin (2002) narrate. Then, a bull reorganized it ‘ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae, fidei catholicae augmentum, eruditorum quoque ac litterarum studiis insistentium virorum commodum et honorem’ (‘to enhance the glory of the Church, to increase the Catholic faith, for the benefit and honour of those men devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and letters’; Pope Sixtus IV, 1475),² with extended premises, dedicated funding and adequate staff. Thanks to these sensitive and enlightened pontiffs, the institution entered its first phase of modernity, opening its doors to scholars with its own institutional identity, the necessary financial support and recognition of the role of a librarian (bibliothecarius; the humanist Bartolomeo Platina was the first to be appointed).³

At first located in the heart of the Apostolic Palace, the Library was then moved to its current location under Pope Sixtus V,⁴ between 1587 and 1589, following a design by the architect Domenico Fontana. Ceresa (2012) details this historical phase of the Library; also, a painting by Pietro Facchetti, currently hanging on a wall in the Sistine Hall of the Library, portrays Sixtus V approving the project presented by Domenico Fontana in 1588. The building that still houses the Library today was built on the dividing terraces that connected the Cortile del Belvedere to what is now known as the Library Courtyard. On the upper floor, a large monumental hall (vaso librario) with two aisles was constructed,⁵ known as the Sistine Hall, measuring 70 metres long by 15 meters wide and lavishly decorated. It is still used by the Library today, although the current Reading Rooms are housed in spaces arranged according to the more modern necessities at the end of the 19th century. These Popes aimed to replicate the public libraries of antiquity – places of intense scholarly activity, mainly focused on philological study and learned discussions.

Since its inception, the Library has fostered inclusivity by being open to scholars irrespective of their gender, religion or political beliefs,⁶ and over time it has grown in reputation and importance as a centre of learning and scholarship (Buonocore and Piazzoni, 2011). While facing some challenges, it has managed to preserve its collections, cementing its position as one of the most notable libraries in the world, whose aim, according to the Praedicate Evangelium constitution, is to be a cultural conduit for the message of the Church through its service to the Roman Pontiff and the Roman Curia.

More accurately, the Vatican Library is a ‘library of libraries’ (bibliotheca bibliothecarum), as it has, since its inception, integrated the papal collections with the various libraries acquired by the Popes over time (D’Aiuto and Vian, 2011; Montuschi, 2014; Piazzoni and Jatta, 2010). This venerable institution, which works alongside the Holy See to fulfil its mission with a specific cultural and preservation mandate, houses a rich heritage of manuscripts, printed books and other printed materials, as well as a valuable numismatic collection, archival documents, photographs and graphic items. Concurrently, a diverse collection of documents of various types and origins bears witness to its evolution and the relationships developed by the Library over the course of its long history. This documentation is primarily found in the Institutional Archive, a natural repository for documents generated by transactions and daily events. Other sources distributed across different locations also contribute to the historical narrative of the institution. This heterogeneous yet interconnected collection of documents, comprising traditional and digital resources, is neither fully known nor thoroughly explored for various reasons.

The objective of this article is to provide a general overview of this heritage and its potential historical significance, focusing on the resources that document the last century of institutional life and presenting some significant episodes in the institutional history as they emerge from these composite testimonies. It is worth emphasizing how this multifaceted heritage stands as a valuable testimony to the active role of the Library in the international cultural context as it consistently engages in the quest for technological solutions that best meet its organizational needs.

The evolution of such an ancient and complex cultural institution, intertwined with the equally intricate history of its locations, is condensed into a variety of documents that narrate not only the history of the Library over time, but also the growth and richness of its network of connections. These testimonies reflect the Library's role as a cultural diplomacy entity and an institution of the Church, and, above all, bear witness to the stories of the individuals who have contributed to its development.

The Library’s documentary resources are complex and distributed across various collections and archives. The most significant can be summarized as follows:
The Institutional Archive (historical and current);

Documents kept in the Manuscript Department;

The Archives Section;

The Photographic Archive;

The Digital Photographic Archive;

The Photographic Collection;

The Archive of the Vatican School of Library Science;

Other resources.

The Institutional Archive (historical and current)

In the Library’s Archive, under the direct custody of the Prefecture, a collection that is partially unknown outside the Library gathers primary documents from the 16th century onwards; it is being made known to the public through the publication of the History of the Vatican Library book series.⁷ The Historical Section consists of a main series of over 280 units, while the Current Section, began to be organized since the year 2000, contains documents related to the related to the Library's more recent history. The Archive includes incoming and outgoing correspondence, consultation registers, lists of scholars, personnel records, documents related to the establishment and development of various sections of the Library, drafts of its statutes and regulations, copies of papal documents, purchase notes, and entry registers for manuscripts, printed materials and other items.

While the Current Section is not accessible for understandable reasons, the Historical Section is open for consultation based on the criteria of the pontificates that have applied since 1924 to the documents of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, which collects and preserves documents of the Holy See. Currently, the chronological limit for consultation is set as the end of the pontificate of Pius XII (October 1958). In addition, a discretionary criterion was established for granting access to some specific documents.

The Current Section contains documents in a variety of formats: alongside the preservation of paper documents, an automated system for internal use, with restricted access, registers incoming correspondence only, but, in some cases, outgoing correspondence as well. It includes brief synopses and a classification system: for each subject, a specific protocol position is assigned in order to facilitate the retrieval of records. Institutional email correspondence is an important issue, which still needs to be systematically addressed; a significant portion of the documentation is at risk of being lost without an effective archiving policy. The Library is considering appropriate methods to select and preserve messages in accordance with current regulations.

Requests for reproductions and rights are resources of particular interest: orders for images and permissions for private study or professional purposes have been consistently recorded in the system, in addition to being preserved in hard-copy format. This approach facilitates the tracking of research on specific items within the collections and will enable future researchers to study the distribution of editorial content related to the Library’s heritage.

The regulations and minutes of the Library Council, dating back to its establishment in the late 19th century, are also kept in the Archive. They are a crucial ‘logbook’ that, on a regular and consistent basis, faithfully records the institution’s development over time. Other meaningful documentation comprises the registers of manuscript readers dating from the second half of 16th century onwards; it is a relevant source of information about the scholarly activity that took place in the Library from its inception.⁸

Documents kept in the Manuscript Department

Other valuable resources, such as personnel information, catalogues, inventories, and reading and loan registers, are mostly kept in the Institutional Archive, but some of these documents are also located in the Manuscript Department. For example, the Ruoli (‘Rolls’) collection (432 items), which was acquired by the Library in 1896, covers the chronological period from Julius III (1550–1555) to Pius IX (1846–1878). It provides information about members of the papal family and the Apostolic Sacred Palaces, categorized into different groups, along with their corresponding remuneration and ‘shares’ from the papal annona. This source is crucial for tracing the individuals who served the Popes over a span of more than three centuries. Notably, it provides evidence of bookbinders in the Vatican Library, confirming that it was one of the first institutions to establish an in-house laboratory for the physical care and preservation of volumes.

Other resources kept in the Manuscript Department are useful for tracking the Library's acquisitions, provenance and scholarly use of the collections over time, such as the two earliest loan registers preserved in the main series of the Vatican Latini: Vat.lat.3964 and Vat.lat.3966. They are accessible to readers and have also been digitized; they are currently available online on the DVL (DigiVatLib) website.⁹

The Archives Section

Buonocore (2010) outlines the creation and organization of the Archives Section of the Library, which was established as a specific division of the institution during the second half of the 1970s and is mostly accessible to readers. It is housed in a designated area and collects archives from institutions (mostly churches or chapters of Roman churches), noble families (in the Roman context) and individual figures. These collections came to the Library at various times and through different means. Family archives, in most cases, were acquired along with the entire manuscript and printed heritage of the respective family (and later divided according to type among the Library’s departments and sections and organized into specific collections). From the perspective of the history of the Library's collection development, the Archives Section is of significant value and covers the history of the families or institutions from which these collections originated.

The Photographic Archive

The Photographic Archive is a complex entity that is closely related to the activities of the Photographic Laboratory, which was formally established in the late 1930s thanks to Pope Pius XI (1857–1939). However, internal photographic activities have been documented since 1907, when a reproduction service was started; specialized equipment subsequently began to be acquired in 1931. Ambrosi Sacconi (2010) discusses the Photographic Archive, which preserves the originals of photographs taken by the Laboratory and constitutes a valuable documentary heritage.

These images are not simply tools; they are also research objects and play a significant role in preservation, illustrating the state of manuscripts at the time a photograph was taken. In some cases, they show a manuscript before its deterioration or a restoration intervention. Núñez Gaitán and Schuler (2022) highlight the Library's work to use photographic technology for the optimal preservation of its heritage, ensuring that it is transmitted to future generations in the best possible condition.

As part of this institutional care, shortly after the Second World War, the Library chose to microfilm its manuscripts and entrust them, for greater security, to an external entity that would contribute to their long-term preservation – the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library at Saint Louis University, Missouri, USA.¹⁰ This huge reproduction endeavour, which lasted a decade, encompassed approximately 70% of the manuscript holdings and served as an important precursor to various study and planning activities that, in subsequent decades, led to the current digitization project, which will be discussed later.

Among other items, the current contents of the Photographic Archive include approximately 54,000 microfilms of the Library’s manuscripts, reproduced in their entirety; around 33,000 35-millimetre colour slides and 10,000 in the 13 × 18 cm format; approximately 35,000 large-format black-and-white negatives; and various microfiche reproductions of certain collections, such as the Cicognara collection.¹¹

The Digital Photographic Archive

The Photographic Laboratory currently uses state-of-the-art digital-imaging equipment and maintains the most rigorous preservation standards. The Digital Photographic Archive collects the digital heritage of the Library and also images and video recordings of events related to the Library, which are regularly documented by the Photographic Laboratory’s staff.

The Digital Photographic Archive preserves the heritage resulting from the digitization projects of the collections – predominantly manuscripts – which the Library has undertaken from the moment when technology made these activities possible – namely, from the mid 1990s. The various digitization tests and projects undertaken over the years, culminating in the current main project, have produced an enormous collection of digital images, which are carefully preserved to enable their transmission to future generations.

Production companies often create video projects about the Library. Copies of these films are also preserved by the Library, as historical records of a specific moment in the institution’s life and, in accordance with copyright laws, they are occasionally used for internal promotional purposes.

The Photographic Collection

The Photographic Collection is housed in the Cabinet of Graphics, a specific section within the Department of Prints, which collects photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries, organized into albums, as well as loose photographs, sorted by format. These items document the history of the papacy from the pontificate of Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) to that of Pope John Paul II (1920–2005). In particular, they provide testimony of the celebrations, travels and episodes in the lives of these pontiffs and various locations within the Vatican (see Philips, 2012; Voltan, 2010).

A substantial portion of the collection also includes photographs sent to the different Popes by missions and dioceses from around the world, as well as by private individuals. These images document places, events, institutions and various personalities, and hold great importance for the history of the Church and the customs of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Photographic Collection is currently being reorganized, and a general inventory will be available in the near future, along with a scholarly volume featuring a selection of the most interesting works from the collection.

The Archive of the Vatican School of Library Science

The first course in the Vatican School of Library Science began in November 1934 (Graglia, 1947; Pernigotti and Weston, 1991; Weston, 2020). Courses have been held regularly up to the present day, with the only interruption being due to the Second World War. Thousands of students have acquired knowledge relative to library management. For a long time, the school was the only training institution in the field of professional librarian education. In an address on 11 May 1935, Pope Pius XI assigned the school ‘the purpose of initiating in the broadest and best way, a management, governance, and care of books that … extends to what books represent, namely, science, the reverence for science, and the noble effort around science’, as reported by Alecci (1983).

From the very beginning, the number of requests for enrolment has consistently exceeded the number of places available. Although the school was initially intended for the benefit of clergy, a large number of laypeople, both men and women, have been admitted. Many former students hold, or have held, significant positions in various important libraries.

The school has experienced significant transformations over the years, aligning itself with modern higher education institutions through notable collaborations. It has recorded its activities since its establishment, providing scholars with an extensive array of materials in print, photographic and digital formats.

Other resources

Núñez Gaitán (2013, 2017) and Petrucci Nardelli (1993) explore the history and characteristics of the Library’s Restoration Laboratory, which has a long tradition and can be considered one of the oldest restoration laboratories in the world. Various documents from the 14th century testify to the Library's interest in preservation. Restoration interventions on manuscripts, as well as the roles, duties and obligations of book restorers and binders, are documented from the 16th century onwards. The commitment to the correct preservation of the Library’s heritage and the methods of intervention adopted over time are evident from various documents available in the Library’s repositories. Initially, interventions aimed to ensure the usability of books; however, at the end of the 20th century, the Laboratory took its current direction in studying how to prevent and treat damage optimally. This shift began under Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903), when the physical reorganization of the Library went hand in hand with its modernization and the establishment of a series of interinstitutional relationships. This included a heightened focus on conservation, adopting a modern approach to the restoration and preservation of the collection from physical, chemical, and biological damage.

The Laboratory staff currently record any specific information related to the restoration process on a detailed form, accompanied by digital images. All the data collected so far has been entered into a database. Previous interventions were reported from the 1920s onwards; currently stored in paper registers, they will also be gradually digitized in order to facilitate future understanding and evaluation of the procedures and materials adopted, providing a guide for future interventions.

Such a vast and comprehensive documentary apparatus provides robust support for historical research on the Library. In particular, by retracing the last century of the Vatican Library’s existence, it is possible to delineate a vivid and in-depth narrative of the events and developments that have characterized the institution’s recent history in its various aspects. The period from Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903) to Pope Pius XI (1922–1939) is particularly significant for the Vatican Library, as it marks the integration of the Library into the mainstream of modern library organization and management, as well as its alignment with major international library institutions. During this phase, there was a fruitful and significant convergence of initiatives, which impacted various aspects of the institution. In particular, Pope Leo XIII opened the Library to a wider audience by inaugurating the current Reading Room for Printed Materials in 1892, organized with open shelves, and introducing new opening hours. During the same period, the Library incorporated new acquisitions; developed regulations for staff and readers; reorganized storage spaces; implemented proper care of its heritage through the application of restoration and conservation techniques with up-to-date restoration and photographic laboratories; and ultimately increased its editorial and research activities, including distinctive photographic campaigns and facsimile editions. Additionally, new tools were developed to facilitate access to the collections, including standardized cataloguing practices for manuscripts and printed volumes. With such achievements, the Library opened itself to readers worldwide while ensuring accessibility and the proper preservation of its collections.

The first rules and regulations of the Library were published with a motu proprio by Pius IX (Pope Pius IX, 1851)¹² and two subsequent motu proprios dated 1878¹³ and 1888, ¹⁴ both by Pope Leo XIII. The Regolamento della Biblioteca Vaticana was issued in 1923 and has been regularly updated to the present day. The rules and regulations detailed the organization’s internal life by defining the Library's hierarchical structure, staff duties and administration directions, as well as the main services of the Library, including opening hours. All of the preparatory drafts of these regulations are preserved in the Library Archive, while their published versions are kept in both the Archive and the printed books collections. This set of rules and regulations still serves as the primary point of reference for institutional activities and the management of services for scholars.¹⁵

This substantial modernization process, initiated in the last decades of the 19th century and the early 20th century,¹⁶ has been further consolidated during this century, consistently evolving with a succession of significant innovations for the Library. Key figures, such as the Jesuit prefect Franz Ehrle, have played a vital role. During Ehrle’s tenure (1895–1914),¹⁷ the modernization initiatives continued, and the Library began to align itself with major international library institutions, being fully open to scholars from around the world and simultaneously accessible through its resources, as well as at the forefront of properly valuing and preserving its collections. Under Ehrle, significant milestones were achieved, including the beginning of the analytical cataloguing of manuscripts with the publication of a set of norms (Vattasso and Franchi de’ Cavalieri, 1902) and the organization of the International Conference of St Gallen (Switzerland) on 1 October 1898, to address preservation-related concerns and foster collaboration among prominent European libraries.¹⁸ This conference is known as the ‘mother of all restoration conferences’ and significantly influenced restoration practices.¹⁹ Ehrle (1898, 1899a, 1899b) himself highlighted the pivotal nature and impact of this initiative.

Ehrle also initiated the publication of the Library's facsimile editions and promoted the study of palimpsests – an ongoing research area that the Library has consistently fostered up to the present day, employing cutting-edge multispectral technologies. In addition, in 1912, the current Reading Room for Manuscripts was opened to scholars and the manuscripts collection was transferred to a new purpose-built depository.

In July 1914, Ehrle requested to be relieved of the direction of the Library. Achille Ratti, who had been a librarian at the Ambrosiana Library in Milan from 1903 to 1914, took his place as the prefect of the institution until 1919. In December 1922, when he had been appointed Pope with the name Pius XI, Ratti ordained Ehrle as a cardinal and, in 1929, he appointed him as Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church. As the prefect of the Library, Ratti focused on a comprehensive general catalogue of printed books and the conservation and restoration needs for manuscripts. As Pope, he further supported the Library by allocating new spaces for the collections and personally selecting the shelving. He also initiated the subsequent collaboration with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

For new storage facilities, one of the Vatican Library's most urgent needs, Pius XI allocated the ancient horse stables on the ground floor of the Bramante's eastern gallery in the courtyard of the Belvedere. He personally selected and donated the sturdiest, most modern and most expensive shelving (standard stacks) produced by the Snead Company of Jersey City, USA. By the end of 1928, the first storage facility had been set up; a second, twice the size of the first, was established three years later, and shelves of the same type were installed in the large Reading Room, which was reconstructed and reorganized at the end of 1931.

In 1929, the Library played an active role in the first World Congress of Libraries and Bibliography, where the International Library and Bibliographical Committee, founded in 1927 in Edinburgh, assumed the name International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA; Orlandi, 2010; Vincenti, 2020). It is very likely that the city of Rome was chosen not only in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Antonio Panizzi,²⁰ but also for the ongoing projects in the Vatican, where some American librarians were working in collaborations supported by the Carnegie Foundation, as we will see later. The Pope personally welcomed the 880 librarians, who came from 35 countries. He received them with an audience in the Sistine Hall of the Library and greeted them as ‘a former and now old colleague’ (Guerrini and Speciale, 2012). The Vatican Library's participation in the first IFLA conference marked a significant milestone in its commitment to international library cooperation. This inaugural event fostered the Library's engagement with the library community worldwide; the conference facilitated an exchange of ideas, best practices and collaborative efforts on matters related to the description and preservation of collections.

In the list of individuals who had a major impact on the Library’s history during the 20th century, it is also worth highlighting Eugéne Tisserant and Giovanni Mercati. From 1908 to 1936, Eugène Tisserant, who succeeded Ehrle, improved the Library’s research tools, with a new general catalogue of printed books and a unified index of manuscripts, inspired and supported by a librarian at the University of Michigan, William Warner Bishop. Between 1928 and 1941, around 20 young female graduates worked on a comprehensive index of Vatican manuscripts. Mattioli Hary (1996, 2009) discusses this unprecedented and significant employment of women in the Vatican as collaborators, which was due to the involvement of the Carnegie Foundation and its support of the Library's modernization project between the 1920s and 1930s through a programme developed by American experts.

Tisserant personally made a long tour of major libraries in the USA in 1927 (Vian, 1980); this earned him the epithet ‘American’. In 80 days, from 29 April to 19 July, he visited various North American libraries, acquiring ideas and learning about their practices, and then promptly informing his superiors in Rome through highly detailed letters. Following this experience, he oversaw the training of specialized personnel, who were sent for intensive training in prominent US libraries (Orlandi, 2013).

Simultaneously, a North American team assisted the Library in drafting cataloguing standards, based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. In 1926, Henry Smith Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, went to the Vatican Library to explore the development of a cataloguing system for printed books. In 1927, a working group – comprising William Warner Bishop, James C. Hanson of the University of Chicago and Charles Martel, head of the Cataloguing Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC – was joined by John Ansteinsson, Milton E. Lord and William M. Randall, as well as the Vatican assistants returning from the USA (Enrico Benedetti, Gerardo Bruni, Igino Giordani, Giuseppe Graglia, Riccardo Matta, Carmelo Scalia and Nello Vian). The Norms for the Cataloguing of Printed Books was issued in 1931. Such developments allowed the Library to reduce the time needed to locate a book from a full day to an average of half an hour.

Thanks to this collaboration with the American library world and the support of the Carnegie Foundation, the Vatican Library was actively engaged in initiatives that, during these years, led also to the establishment of IFLA and the Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (Italian Library Association). This was undoubtedly not only due to the interests of the Pope, a former librarian, but also because, during this phase, the Vatican Library was led by individuals who were oriented towards international cooperation and innovation for the improvement of services.

Giovanni Mercati was the Cardinal Librarian of the Holy Roman Church from 1936 to 1957. He, along with Tisserant, aided Jews in evading racial persecution by hiding them or providing them with employment in the Library (Vian, 2002). Ehrle and Tisserant also assisted Jews in obtaining visas, allowing some individuals to leave Italy with Vatican passports. Ardura (2023) acknowledges Tisserant's commitment, which led him to be recognized posthumously as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by Yad Vashem¹⁷.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Library increasingly reduced its offerings to scholars due to the closed borders, and then shut its doors from 1943 to 1944; at the same time, the Vatican took responsibility for the safeguarding operations for several archives and libraries. As a cardinal, Mercati promoted a census of the ecclesiastical archives and libraries, and sent instructions to the bishops of central Italy to ensure the on-site protection of their collections or manage their transportation to and temporary storage in the Vatican. Collections from the Abbey of Montecassino and some other relevant libraries in the Rome area were delivered to the Vatican. The Library managed to protect the collections. In March 1945, after the conflict ended, an exhibition was organized by the Library to showcase these collections before they were returned to their respective institutions (De Luca, 1945 and Bruni, 2016).

Over the following decades, the Library increasingly integrated itself into the global professional landscape. In particular, the period that marks the beginning of the computerization of activities and processes, as well as the study of the most effective solutions to be applied in the Library, deserves attention and can be identified as the phase from the second half of the 1980s onwards. From 1984 to 1997, Prefect Leonard Eugene Boyle, a Dominican Father whose centenary is to be celebrated in 2024, embraced some pivotal technological advancements. Boyle, an esteemed scholar and librarian, made significant contributions to the Vatican Library during his tenure; his dedication left a lasting impression on the institution, which entered a new phase of modernization by implementing new technologies in various areas. It started with the adoption of specific software for the acquisition and cataloguing of printed books. Later, in the mid 1990s, the Library embarked on an extensive and significant retrospective catalogue conversion project: the printed cards, mainly from the collaboration with the American experts during the 1920s, began to be entered manually into the new system. This original database has since evolved into the current online catalogue, which has been improved further over the subsequent years with the adoption of increasingly advanced systems and systematic efforts to update and enrich the bibliographic information.

In parallel with the adoption of computer tools, Father Boyle promoted and participated in the establishment of the Unione Romana Biblioteche Scientifiche a network created to facilitate cooperative work between several research libraries in Rome, particularly participatory cataloging and the sharing of authority files, fostering productive relationships with other foreign academic libraries in Rome (Contigiani and Vincenti, 2003). During Father Boyle’s prefecture, an initial exploratory phase of digitizing the manuscript heritage also began, paving the way for following experiments until the digitization project of 2010 when these efforts culminated, during the tenures of Raffaele Farina (1997–2007)²¹ and Cesare Pasini (2007–2023), in the refinement of the acquisition process that is still applied by the Library today. Thanks to this project, approximately 30,000 of the 80,000 manuscripts have been made available for open access on the DVL website,^22,²³ along with some incunabula, archival materials and inventories, graphic materials, coins and medals, and printed materials.

Raffaele Farina's vision led to the creation of digital databases and online catalogues, enabling scholars to access the Library's holdings remotely. He also promoted international collaborations, fostering partnerships with leading academic institutions and libraries to enhance research and exchange knowledge. His commitment to expanding the Library's digital presence significantly contributed to its relevance in the modern digital age.

Cesare Pasini succeeded Farina as prefect of the Vatican Library in 2007 and continued to foster and promote its digital initiatives, emphasizing the importance of preserving and promoting the Library's cultural heritage through state-of-the-art technology. The Library accelerated its efforts to digitize rare and valuable manuscripts, incunabula and printed works, not only providing increased access to its collections, but also ensuring the preservation of these fragile and precious materials for future generations. Pasini's dedication to digitization and technological advancements solidified the Vatican Library's reputation as a global leader in digital preservation and accessibility (Manoni et al., 2018; Pasini, 2014).

Both Farina’s and Pasini's contributions have propelled the Vatican Library into the digital age, preserving its rich cultural heritage while also making it more accessible to scholars and researchers worldwide. Their leadership and commitment to embracing technology has furthered the Library’s mission to promote knowledge, research and the preservation of humanity’s intellectual heritage. Following Father Boyle's initiatives, during the last two decades, Farina and Pasini placed significant emphasis on technological research, beyond cataloguing and library automated services. As an example, by the late 19th century, the development of the application of early photography techniques to palimpsests had started; the Library’s Photographic Laboratory currently employs advanced multispectral technologies to reveal details not visible to the naked eye (Altamura et al., 2022; Schuler, 2009, 2010, 2013; Schuler et al., 2017). Such technologies allow the detection of faded ink, erasures or underlying hidden layers within manuscripts without causing physical damage; such diagnostic investigations are particularly effective in recovering the scriptio inferior in palimpsest manuscripts. These technologies, applied to research, engage both academic professionals and staff with expertise from Photographic and Restoration Laboratories, as image specialists collaborate closely with philologists (Giuffrida et al., 2023).

Another area in which the Library has applied significant technologies and experimented with innovative solutions is the long-term preservation of digital materials.²⁴ The digitization project was implemented by adopting the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), which has been continuously updated by the international scientific community for over 40 years. Giuffrida (2021) underscores the Library’s collaboration with technical experts and scholars worldwide, which ensures that the FITS is implemented accurately and reliably so that the digital representations of manuscripts maintain their integrity and accuracy over time.

The Vatican Library's commitment to using the FITS aligns with its broader mission to safeguard its collections while making them accessible. Exploring the best preservation conditions for its heritage, the Library has not only participated in significant joint initiatives for the application and study of the FITS for cultural heritage across Europe, but also contributed to the Arctic World Archive project in Spitsbergen, Norway, with a copy of the so-called Urbinate codex (Urb. lat.365) of Dante's Divine Comedy on digital tape.

The International Image Interoperability Framework is another key area in the Library's adoption of cutting-edge technologies to better disseminate and share its heritage. It enables the creation of enriched digital collections via the aggregation of contents from various cultural heritage institutions in order to facilitate their comparative analysis (Manoni, 2022). In recent years, new frontiers in scientific and technological possibilities have opened up in the Library in collaboration with specialized research centres. Among these, it is worth noting codicological research through digital tools, and the focus on the recognition and classification of objects in manuscript illuminations through artificial intelligence.

For decades, to promote wider knowledge of its heritage, the Library has granted loans from its collections for temporary exhibit. This allows the circulation of the Library's works in major museums around the world and enables a broader audience to access the treasures of the Popes. The loan registers are detailed by the Exhibition Service and regularly transferred to the current Archive of the Service. As a recent example, the Library participated in Expo 2020 in Dubai, the first occurrence of such an event in the Middle East, which had as its theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’. The Holy See and the Library interpreted this as ‘Deepening the Connection’, according to Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Fratelli tutti on fraternity and social friendship.

In line with its cultural diplomacy mission, in November 2021, the Library unveiled an internal Exhibition Hall, to share its collections with a wider public (Watkins, 2021).²⁵ The inauguration was attended by Pope Francis, who stated:
the human heart … needs culture, that which touches the soul, which brings the human being closer to his or her profound dignity. This is why the Church must bear witness to the importance of beauty and culture, in dialogue with the particular thirst for the infinite that defines the human being. (Pope Francis, 2021)
To conclude this brief overview of significant events of the last century as narrated by the historical sources of the Vatican Library, it is worth mentioning the case of the Marega Documents, an example of a surprising discovery within the collections in recent years.

Don Mario Marega was a Salesian missionary in Bungo Province (now Ōita Prefecture), Japan, before the Second World War. For more than 40 years, he committed himself to reconstructing the history of Christianity in Japan by collecting a total of 14,000 items; it is the largest collection concerning feudal Japan outside of Japan. This heritage is also remarkable because it contains some extraordinary autobiographical drawings made by Don Marega himself – a sort of comic-book-style story, narrating his life up to 1945. In 1953, Don Marega, through the Apostolic Nuncio in Japan, managed to send this material to the Vatican. This collection proved difficult to catalogue for a western library, so the documents remained stored away for some years and were only studied in March 2011.²⁶ In 2013, a collaborative project was launched between the Library and various Japanese academic institutions to preserve the collection, which involved digitizing and cataloguing it in order to create a comprehensive database.²⁷ This also led to a paleography and conservation workshop in October 2016 (Aoki and Núñez Gaitán, 2019) and, subsequently, a paleography manual was published (Ōta, 2021).

The examples provided illustrate the development of the collections and the evolution of the institution during a pivotal period in its recent history. During this time, the Library embraced technological advancements and integrated them seamlessly with its core mission. The adoption of widely recognized cooperation principles; the pioneering use of technological standards; participation in large-scale projects to ensure the best possible preservation of and access to its heritage; exchange and collaboration with other institutions in shared projects; and the multidisciplinary application of technologies to ensure optimal heritage access and preservation, thanks to the joint efforts and competences of the whole staff – all these significant moments in the Library’s history can be accurately reconstructed from the records accumulated in its various archives. The overall wealth of these sources will provide future scholars with a broad array of materials, including paper-based, photographic and digital resources. Each piece of information is a tile in a vast and composite mosaic. Once assembled, this extensive documentary heritage will enable the reconstruction of a comprehensive narrative of the institution’s history in all its aspects – not only the events and their particular features (such as operational decisions, economic outcomes, the evaluation of potential choices and the formulation of preferred solutions), but also, and most importantly, the noteworthy individuals who played a pivotal role in the Vatican Library’s growth, as well as the intricate network of relationships and connections the Library has established over time.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Raffaella Vincenti

Notes

Author biography

Following several years managing networked library automation systems, Raffaella Vincenti was in charge of the Acquisitions Office at the Vatican Library from 2007 to 2012. She is currently the General Secretary of the Library and has taught courses on Referencing and Bibliography at the Vatican School of Library Science since 2010. Her interests include the history of libraries and library science; the birth and development of bibliography and reference and information services; the definition of information and the nature of information needs in the electronic environment; information-seeking behaviour and analysis of interpersonal communication in reference transactions; and the development of effective written and verbal/non-verbal communication skills.

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