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
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