Reflection

I have never used a blog before and have found it an interesting process.

The positives

• being able to edit
• being able to preview
• the range of design options
• ease of publishing
• having the opportunity to read others blogs

The difficulties

• getting the pictures to appear where wanted them to
• at times when I was drafting the post the fonts looked fine and consistent but when I cam to publish the post they were not consistent

The research process was time consuming but worthwhile.  I undertook a lot of reading from websites which contained fascinating information.  At times I find it difficult to read large amounts of information online so had to print the information out.  The Vatican website contained all of the information I needed but is difficult to navigate.  I used this as my main source as I presume the information is accurate and reliable.  I used a range of other sites but at times their information was conflicting especially in relation to dates.  The video and images online are invaluable as they allow the viewer to see the Vatican as well as read about it.  It is an incredible city and the library is a work of art in itself. 

My visit to the State Library was worthwhile and I found information I was unlikely to find elsewhere.  It allowed me to gain further research skills as I am not a frequent user of the library.  The staff were helpful and friendly. 

This topic has led me to read a lot of historical information which relates to the Vatican Library indirectly.  To gain a good understanding of the history of the Library it is necessary to understand the history of the times.  This was both interesting and frustrating.  It was interesting as I find history interesting but frustrating because I do not have enough time to complete all of the reading I would like to.

Pictures

This week I have decided on a series of pictures as it is hard to describe the library and the collection.  I feel that the pictures give the best indication of the library itself and its amazing collection.  


The pictures were sourced from the internet.  I found it very difficult to arrange the pictures in the way that I wanted.  I am used to using programs where you can use text wrapping to easily manipulate where pictures appear on the page.  

Resources


http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?ling=eng&res=1280x800


http://textline.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/the-vatican-library-reopens-on-20-september/


http://www.mariabuszek.com/Italy/photos


http://www.newyorker.com

The Rules

I have begun to focus on the current library.  I have been looking at the collection, staff and using the library.  I would one day love to be able to go and use the library although this is very unlikely as you need to be an academic with a particular purpose.  University students are not normally admitted unless they are completing a thesis.  Exceptions are sometimes made but you need a letter from the University stating they accept responsibility for their actions and they are able to handle the precious materials with care.  As well as having a particular purpose and being an academic there needs to be space available. At least, I would love to visit the Vatican and see the buildings, art work etc.

There is a lot of information once again to sort through.  I continue to find the Vatican internet site as my main source of information.  

Outlined below are the main rules for using the library.

Rules to be admitted to the library

Qualified researchers and scholars from around the world, particularly professors and researchers from universities and other institutions of higher education,  and other learned persons known for their writings and scholarly publications, are admitted without distinction of  race, religion, origin or culture. 

The prerequisites for admission are the availability of space and adequate training, documented and attested by an accredited academic institution. 

It is also tradition that readers indicate the nature of their research project.

  

Once you have been granted admission you must agree to follow the rules as outlined below.

You are required to

• Treat all materials, particularly manuscripts, with the utmost care and extreme delicacy, protecting them from any type of damage
• Observe strict silence not only in the reading rooms, but within the entire premises, conversing only in the courtyard or in the Library bar.
• Refrain from disturbing the study and work of other readers, e. g. by talking or by using any kind of noisy equipment.
• Wear attire appropriate for an ancient institution of culture and study.
• Turn off mobile phones
• Behave in a dignified manner.

 You are not allowed to 

• Reproduce photos or sound recordings
• Bring or use scissors, knives, razor blades, razors, matches, adhesive paper, glue, bottles of ink or correction fluid.
• Smoke (except in courtyard 3)
• Eat or drink (except in the Library bar)

for an outline of the full rules of admittance and use see the following website

http://www.vaticanlibrary.vatlib.it/BAVT/info/vaticanlibraryfiles/rules.pdf

Resources

http://communio.stblogs.org

The Collection

The collection of the Vatican Library is one of the biggest in the world.  It includes many important historical pieces.  I was able to find information regarding the collection using the internet, in particular, the Vatican website.  The video below was shown on sixty minutes. People, other than scholars are rarely allowed to visit the library so this video gives an insight to places most of us will never see.

The collection includes manuscripts, archives, printed books, prints and engravings, coins and medals

Manuscripts

The manuscript section includes a collection of around 80,000 literary materials.  There are manuscripts which are Latin, Greek and Oriental.  It has papyrus codices of the Gospels and other New Testament writings and masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.  It is thought that some of the documents on papyrus date back to the year 200.  It also includes collections  of letters and papers from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century.  For example letters written by Henry viii to Anne Boleyn.  

Archives

The Vatican Archives were separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century; they contain another 150,000 items.  Today, the materials kept in the Vatican Secret Archives occupies eighty-five linear kilometres of bookshelves.   It has two reading rooms, admitting about 1500 scholars from over 60 Countries every year, an index room, an internal library, a laboratory for preservation, restoration and bookbinding, a laboratory for the restoration and the study of seals, a laboratory for photography and digital reproduction, a data processing centre and a computer laboratory,

  

Printed Books

The Vatican Library possesses about one and a half million printed books, predominantly old and rare books.  The Library preserves two types of collections of printed books: “closed collections” and “open collections”.

Prints and engravings

The Prints Cabinet of the Vatican Library  preserves engravings and loose prints, i.e. images which are not bound into books or which are not accompanied by printed texts. It also preserves a considerable number of drawings which have, over the course of time, become part of the Library’s collections and which were added to the collection of engravings due to the similarity of the necessary conservation measures. 

Coins and Medals

The Numismatic Cabinet or Medagliere of the Vatican Library preserves coins, medals, plaques, seals, tablets, engraved stones, sulfur and plaster casts, and other similar materials.

In particular:

• ·    Roman coins of the Republican Period
• ·    Roman coins of the Imperial Period
• ·    Coins found in the Roman Catacombs
• ·    Byzantine coins
• ·    Pontifical coins (the largest collection in the world)
• ·    Coins of the cities and dominions of Italy
•      Coins from other countries, including a large number of Oriental countries
• ·    Papal medals (the largest and most complete collection in the world)
• ·    Italian medals, from the Renaissance to the present day
• ·    Medals from other countries, from the Renaissance to the present day
• ·    Pontifical lead bulls
• ·    Seals
• ·    Roman lead tesserae
• ·    Roman engraved stones from the Imperial Period
• ·    Sulfur and plaster casts of gems, coins and medals
• ·    Plaques
• ·    Tablets

Video


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7362330n




Resources

http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=storia

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7362330n

Timeline

This week I worked on the following timeline.  I used a range of resources and at times the dates were a little different.  I used the book 'The Vatican Library" as my main source and where dates different used the dates in this book.  

This is a very brief timeline and when looking at the history of the library it is important to also look at the history of the times.  For example, the effect of the 30 year war, which initially was a conflict between the Catholic and Protestant churches.  

When you start looking at European history you could go on forever at it is complex and involved many different races, religions and political powers.  

Evidence of the Roman church having a library and an archive.	4th Century
	End of 8th Century	A document dated to 784 refers to a Theophylactus.  This was given to the Librarian.
Archives and library of the Popes were dispersed.  The reasons are unknown.	First half of the 13th century
	1451	Pope Nicholas V conceives the idea of a library for the convenience of the learned.  He sends representatives all of Europe to search for valuable manuscripts for the library. The collection number around 1160 books.
Pope Sixtus IV installs the books in a restored suite of rooms.	1475
	1481	Bartolomeo Platina is named as the Vatican’s first formal librarian. A catalogue of books is taken and the collection has 3500 entries.
Purchase of the famous library of Fulvio Orsini.	1500
	1517	Protestant reformation begins
The codices from the monastery San Colombano are incorporated into the Vatican Library	1518	.
	1558	Index of banned books is produced.
Most of the holdings of the Palatine Library in Heidelberg became part of the Vatican Library collection.	1623
	Mid 1600’s	The Library welcomed all scholars including Protestants.  It acquired many new manuscripts and books.
Pope Pius VI strictly limits the consultation of manuscripts, prompting Spanish priest Juan Andres to accuse the pope of overseeing a "cemetery of books not a library."	1785
	1883	Pope Leo XIII formally declares the Library open to qualified researchers.
The Library of Congress and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace help modernize the Vatican Library's book catalogue system.	1927 - 1939
	1992	Vatican Library holdings number almost 2 million printed books and serials.
Library closes for refurbishment.	2007
	2010	Library reopens.

Resources

Stickler, AM, Boyle LE (eds.)  1989, The Vatican Library : its history and treasures, Belsen, New York

http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/History.html#chronology

http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=storia

State Library Visit

This week I went to the State Library and found a couple of very interesting resources about the Vatican Library.  They were

·         The Vatican Library : its history and treasures

·         Rome reborn : the Vatican Library and Renaissance culture

They were both great resources with fantastic pictures of some of the oldest codices (books) which are still in existence.  

 

The one pictured here is a Greek Bible from the mid 4th century.  It is one of the few antique codices written in Greek.

It has a square format and was probably written in Egypt.

The second book told of the history of the library in light of what was going on in Rome at the time.  It focussed on the time when the library was formally established which was in the 1400's. 

An interesting quote from the book is

"The Vatican Library came into being, as we still see, in the Renaissance, when scribes, illuminators, binders and printers prided themselves on creating books as physically splendid as they were substantively illuminating.  They did however look for more than beauty in the books." (Grafton 1993)

An example of this can be seen below.  This is part of a two volume Bible which was produced for Ferderigo da Montefeltro by the Florentine entrepeneur Vespasiano da Bisticce.  The scribe was Ugo Comminelli of Mexieres.  It was produced in the 15th century.

Resources

Stickler, AM< Boyle LE (eds.) 1989, The Vatican Library : its history and treasures, Belsen, New York

Grafton, A (ed.) 1993, Rome Reborn : the Vatican Library and Renaissance culture, Washington Library of Congress with Vatican City, Washington

The Vatican

        The Vatican Flag

This week I would like to give a bit of information regarding the Vatican City which obviously the library is part of.  Although the Vatican became a state in 1929, the library and many of the buildings existed before this time with the library bring formally established in the 1400's.  The Vatican is in Rome, Italy.  It is the central government of the Catholic church.




A short history


In 326 the first church was built on the site which was believed to be the tomb of St Peter.  Once the Basilica was built the surrounding areas were largely developed with church buildings.  Popes gradually extended their control over the area and for more than a thousand years ruled a large portion of the Italian peninsula.  However, by 1860 most of the Papal states has been taken over by the Kingdom of Italy, with Rome being the last in 1870.  The position of the Pope was unclear and Popes of this time claimed they were "prisoners" in the Vatican.  In 1929 the dispute was resolved with the Italian Government and Catholic Church signing agreements that the Vatican was an indpendent state.




Some interesting facts about the Vatican include

• It is the world's smallest state
• It has an area of approximately 44 hectares
• The population is around 800
• In July 2007 the Vatican agreed to become the world's first carbon neutral state
• The head of the state is the Pope
• It has its own postal service, currency, newspaper, radio station and army
• It includes buildings such as St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel

Link to video of the Sistine Chapel (took a while to download on my computer)
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Pano/CSN/Visit_CSN_Main.html




Link to video of St Peter's Basilica
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/index-en.html




My research


This weeks research was undertaken using a variety of internet sources.  I found that some of the dates in regard to the history of the Vatican did not correspond in different websites, although differences were only slight.  I am using the Vatican website as my main authority.  The more research I do the more questions I have.  However in my next blog I will be moving onto the library itself. 




References

http://www.fisheaters.com/vatican.html

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vatican-city

http://www.emporis.com/wm/ci/bu/?id=102259

http://www.worldrover.com/history/vatican_city_history.html

http://www.vatican.va/