Vatican Apostolic Library

"the human heart … needs culture, that which touches the soul"- Pope Francis

Vatican Museums, Pinacoteca, fresco. Melozzo da Forlì,Sixtus IV appoints Bartolomeo Platina prefect of the Vatican Library,c. 1477.

Praedicate evangelium

The Praedicate evangelium (Preach the gospel) is an apostolic constitution reforming the Roman Curia and was published and promulgated on 19 March 2022 by Pope Francis; the document took effect on 5 June 2022.

Responsibility of the Vatican Apostolic Library.

“An institution of ancient origin, the Vatican Apostolic Library is an outstanding means for the Church to contribute to the development and dissemination of culture, in support of the work of the Apostolic See. Through its various sections, it is responsible for collecting and preserving a vast patrimony of learning and art and of making it available to scholars in search of truth.”¹

It was with these words that Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, defined his library, which gathers and makes available to scholars from around the world the library collections of the Popes.²

Scope of the Vatican Library

The Vatican Library is a ‘library of libraries’ (bibliotheca bibliothecarum), as it has, since its inception, integrated the papal collections with the various libraries acquired by the Popes over time.

The Library’s documentary resources are complex and distributed across various collections and archives. The most significant can be summarized as follows:

1.The Institutional Archive (historical and current)—The recent publication of the history of the Vatican Library (Storia della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) illustrates the history of the Library from its inception to the present day. ³

2.Documents kept in the Manuscript Department;

3.The Archives Section;

4.The Photographic Archive;

5.The Digital Photographic Archive;

6.The Photographic Collection;

7.The Archive of the Vatican School of Library Science;

8.Other resources.⁴

The Exhibition Hall

In line with its cultural diplomacy mission, in November 2021, the Library unveiled an internal Exhibition Hall, to share its collections with a wider public.

The inauguration was attended by Pope Francis, who stated:

the human heart … needs culture, that which touches the soul, which brings the human being closer to his or her profound dignity. This is why the Church must bear witness to the importance of beauty and culture, in dialogue with the particular thirst for the infinite that defines the human being. (Pope Francis, 2021)⁵

1. Pope Francis (2022) Apostolic Constitution: Praedicate Evangelium on the Roman Curia and its service to the church in the world. Article 243. Available at: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/20220319-costituzione-ap-praedicate-evangelium.html (accessed 14 April 2024).

2. Vincenti, R. (2024). Navigating the Vatican Library repositories. IFLA Journal, 50(4), 798-809. https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352241271056 (Original work published 2024).

3. History of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Vatican City 2010- :

1. The origins of the Vatican Library between Humanism and Renaissance (1447-1534), edited by by A. Manfredi, 2010;

2. The Vatican Library between the Catholic Reformation, growth of the collections and new building (1535-1590), edited by M. Ceresa, 2012;

3. The Vatican Library in the Seventeenth Century (1590-1700): a library di biblioteche, edited by C. Montuschi, 2014;

4. The Vatican Library and the arts in the Age of Enlightenment (1700-1797), edited by B. Jatta, 2016;

5. The Vatican Library from the French occupation to the last pope king (1797-1878), Edited by A. Rita, 2020.

4. Vincenti, R. (2024). Navigating the Vatican Library repositories. IFLA Journal, 50(4), 798-809. https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352241271056 (Original work published 2024).

5. Ibid. and Pope Francis (2021) Address for the inauguration of the Exhibition Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Library and of the exhibition ‘TUTTI. Umanità in Cammino’, 05.11.2021. Available at: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/11/05/211105f.html