Vatican Library offers visitors a glimpse of treasures
November 09, 2010
The Vatican Library, which is ordinarily open only to scholars, is opening a public exhibition “to make the Vatican Library known to people who do not have the privilege of frequenting it.”
The exhibition, which will be on display in the Charlemagne wing of St. Peter’s Square from November 11 through next January 31, will recreate the reading rooms and workshops of the library, and offer a sampling of the institution’s collection—which includes more than 1.5 million books, 75,000 manuscripts, and thousands of coins, medallions, and other items of historical interest dating back to the time of Christ.
Visitors will be asked to don white gloves before examining some of the treasures in the exhibition, including illustrated manuscripts from the Middle Ages and a 4th-century Bible.
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Further information:
- Vatican Apostolic Library: a History Open to the Future (VIS)
- Stepping into the Pope's Library (Vatican Radio)
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