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/

The Beginning

I plan to look at the Vatican itself and then in particular the library.  I am interested in the history of the library from the beginnings of the collection in the fourth century, through to the thirteenth century when the collection was dispersed. Allthough I feel information on these times will be fairly limited.  My main focus will be the modern history of the library which is from the mid 1300's to the present.  I am interested in the finding out about the collection and how it developed.  I will also research the recent refurbishment and the building itself.  I would also like to gather information regarding librarians and who is allowed to use the library.
The areas I will research include

• Vatican City
• The Vatican Library - the building
• Establishment
• The collections
• Timeline
• Recent refurbishment
• Librarians

My research plan includes

• Gathering information from internet
• Going to the State Library

So far I am finding it difficult to find information on the building itself