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