Posted on 09/14/2010 6:52:59 AM PDT by marshmallow
The Vatican's Apostolic Library is reopening to scholars following a three-year, euro9-million ($11.5- million) renovation to install climate-controlled rooms for its precious manuscripts and state-of-the-art security measures to prevent theft and loss.
The library, started by Pope Nicholas V in the 1450s, houses one of the world's best collections of illuminated manuscripts. It includes the oldest known complete Bible, dating from about 325 and believed to have been one of the 50 bibles commissioned by Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Roman leader.
It reopens its frescoed halls to scholars Sept. 20. Library officials took pains to note that the renovation work was completed on time — a rarity in Italy but also an acknowledgment of the inconvenience the three-year closure caused many scholars who had to suspend their research while its collections of tens of thousands of volumes were in storage.
Cardinal Raffaele Farina, the Vatican's chief librarian, thanked those researchers "who understood the reason for the closure."
"Given the amount of what had to be done — the noise and the intrusiveness of the technical and construction work necessary — we decided the library inevitably had to close," Farina told reporters Monday inside the frescoed Sistine Hall.
Some 4,000 to 5,000 scholars are given permission to conduct research in the library every year; access is generally restricted to academics conducting post-graduate level research. None of the items in the library can be checked out, and rules for working inside are strict: No pens, food or even mineral water are allowed in the manuscript reading room.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
It must be an amazing feeling to look upon, let alone study, such ancient works.
I understand a lot of the Vatican manuscripts are available on microfilm at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Mo. (I haven't actually been there.)
Hope everyone got their books in before it closed. Imagine the overdue fines.
open stacks or closed?
Wonder how much gold the Vatican has?.No word from knights Templars.
I don’t know how much gold these days - at least not since so much of it was spent on defending the Roman Jews in WWII.
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