VATICAN APOSTOLIC LIBRARY

Founded in 1475, Vatican Apostolic Library is a historical place that houses a vast collection of contemporary books and journals which stores the treasures of the famous Vatican museum. This place is commonly known as the Vatican library or as Vat, which has over 1.1 million printed books and 75,000 codices from history.

Formerly established in 1475, Vatican Apostolic Library is a historical library that houses a vast collection of printed books, manuscripts, journals, contemporary books and codices. Pope Nicholas founded this magnificent library. Many believe this library was established in 1475; however, it is much older. 

The Vatican Apostolic Library is regarded as one of the world’s oldest libraries which contains a magnificent collection of 2,000,000 printed series and volumes. Out of these, around 8,000 incunabula are preserved carefully inside the Vatican Library. The library also features around 75,000 manuscripts written in various languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopian. 

Note most of these manuscripts belong to the 2nd century. Every year, around 6,000 new volumes become a part of this library. Out of these, only one-fourth are purchased, whereas the rest are received as gifts from people all around the world.

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Highlights

• Vatican Apostolic Library, located in Vatican City, is a research library established in 1475, nearly 547 years ago.
• This historical library houses a vast collection of over 1.1 million books, of which around 8,500 are incunabula.
• It is a research library of law, theology, Science, history and philosophy allowing people from all fields to visit here to conduct experiments and read studies.
• The library also features pre-historical works through Assyrian-Babylonian, Etruscan antiquities, classical Greek, Roman and Egyptian texts on medieval and contemporary art.
• There are several other detailed materials on topics like conservation and restoration of art which attracts many travelers here. 
• Over the years, Cardinal Jorge Mara Meja, The Marquises Guglielmi of Vulci, the Verbite Fathers Michael Schulien, Professors Bruno Mantura, and Wilhelm Schmidt have made several charitable donations here.
• Pope Nicholas V was the founder of the Vatican Apostolic Library, which is classified into several departments: Printed Books Department, Numismatic Department and Manuscript Department.