Editing Vatican Library (section)

==Historical periods==
Scholars have traditionally divided the history of the library into five periods: Pre-Lateran, Lateran, Avignon, Pre-Vatican and Vatican.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Strayer|editor1-first=Joseph|title=Dictionary of the Middle Ages|date=1989|publisher=Scribner|isbn=0684190737|title-link=Dictionary of the Middle Ages}}</ref>

===Pre-Lateran===
The Pre-Lateran period, comprising the initial days of the library, dating from the earliest days of the [[Catholic Church|Church]]. Only a handful of volumes survive from this period, though some are very significant.

===At the Lateran===
The Lateran era began when the library moved to the [[Lateran Palace]] and lasted until the end of the 13th century and the reign of [[Pope Boniface VIII]], who died in 1303, by which time he possessed one of the most notable collections of [[illuminated manuscript]]s in Europe. However, in that year, the Lateran Palace was burnt and the collection plundered by [[Philip IV of France]].<ref name=Wiegand>{{cite book|editor-last1=Wiegand|editor-first1=Wayne A.|editor-last2=Davis|editor-first2=Donald G.|title=Encyclopedia of Library History|date=1994|publisher=Garland|location=New York|isbn=0824057872|page=653}}</ref>

===At Avignon===
The Avignon period was during the [[Avignon Papacy]], when seven successive popes resided in [[Avignon]], [[France]]. This period saw great growth in book collection and record-keeping by the popes in Avignon, between the death of Boniface and the 1370s when the papacy returned to [[Rome]].

===Prior to establishment at the Vatican===
The Pre-Vatican period ranged from about 1370 to 1447. The library was scattered during this time, with parts in Rome, Avignon, and elsewhere. Pope Eugenius IV possessed 340 books by the time of his death.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mycue|first1=David|title=Founder of the Vatican Library: Nicholas V or Sixtus IV?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25541179|journal=The Journal of Library History|year=1981|volume=16|issue=1|pages=121–133|publisher=University of Texas Press|jstor=25541179|access-date=7 October 2020|archive-date=14 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214204837/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25541179|url-status=live}}</ref>

===At the Vatican===
In 1451, [[bibliophile]] [[Pope Nicholas V]] sought to establish a public library at the Vatican, in part to re-establish Rome as a destination for scholarship.<ref name=ibiblio/><ref name="UofA">{{cite web |last1=Meert |first1=Deborah |title=A History of the Vatican Library |url=http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap05/debbie/history.html |access-date=31 July 2014 |website=capping.slis.ualberta.ca |publisher=University of Alberta |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208232256/http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap05/debbie/history.html |archive-date=December 8, 2013}}</ref> Nicholas combined some 350 Greek, Latin and Hebrew codices inherited from his predecessors with his own collection and extensive acquisitions, among them manuscripts from the imperial [[Library of Constantinople]]. Pope Nicholas also expanded his collection by employing Italian and Byzantine scholars to translate the [[Greek classics]] into Latin for his library.<ref name=UofA/> The knowledgeable pope already encouraged the inclusion of [[pagan]] classics.<ref name="God's Librarians" /> Nicolas was important in saving many of the Greek works and writings during this time period that he had collected while traveling and acquired from others.

In 1455, the collection had grown to 1200 books, of which 400 were in Greek.<ref name=Loc>{{Cite web
| title = The Library of Congress: ''Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture - The Vatican Library - The City Reborn: How the City Came Back to Life''
| website = [[Library of Congress]]
| access-date = 2 August 2014
| url = https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/vatican.htmll#tcrhtccbtl
}}</ref>

Nicholas died in 1455. In 1475 his successor [[Pope Sixtus IV]] founded the ''Palatine Library''.<ref name=UofA/> During his papacy, acquisitions were made in "theology, philosophy and artistic literature".<ref name=Wiegand/> The number of [[manuscript]]s is variously counted as 3,500 in 1475<ref name=Wiegand/> or 2,527 in 1481, when [[librarians]] [[Bartolomeo Platina]] and Pietro Demetrio Guazzelli produced a signed listing.<ref name=Clark1899>{{Cite book| last = Clark| first = John Willis| title = On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV.| date = 1899}}</ref><ref name=Zabughin1909>{{Cite book| last = Zabughin| first = Vladimiro| title = Giulio Pomponio Leto: saggio critico, Volume 1.| date = 1909}}</ref><ref name=Muntz1866>{{Cite book| last = Müntz| first = Eugène| title = La Bibliothèque Du Vatican Au Xvie Siècle| date = 1886}}</ref> At the time it was the largest collection of books in the Western world.<ref name=Loc/>

[[Pope Julius II]] commissioned the expansion of the building.<ref name=UofA/> Around 1587, [[Pope Sixtus V]] commissioned the architect [[Domenico Fontana]] to construct a new building for the library, which is still used today. After this, it became known as the Vatican Library.<ref name=UofA/>

During the [[Counter-Reformation]], access to the library's collections was limited following the introduction of the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of banned books]]. Scholars' access to the library was restricted, particularly [[Protestant]] scholars. Restrictions were lifted during the course of the 17th century, and [[Pope Leo XIII]] was to formally reopen the library to scholars in 1883.<ref name=ibiblio>{{cite web|last1=Bloom|first1=Ocker|title=The Vatican Library and its History|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/History.html|website=Ibiblio|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-date=10 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210165636/http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/History.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=UofA/>

In 1756, the priest [[Antonio Piaggio]], curator of ancient manuscripts at the Library used a machine he had invented<ref name="GG1856">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/tesoroletterario00cast#page/n27/mode/2up|author=Giacomo Castrucci|year=1856|title=Tesoro letterario di Ercolano, ossia, La reale officina dei papiri ercolanesi}}</ref> to unroll the first [[Herculaneum papyri]], an operation which took him months.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thephraser.com/2015/03/30/herculaneum-papyri-in-the-national-library-in-naples|year=2015|title=Herculaneum Papyri in the National Library in Naples|work=The Phraser|access-date=17 October 2017|archive-date=18 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018071946/https://thephraser.com/2015/03/30/herculaneum-papyri-in-the-national-library-in-naples/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1809, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] arrested [[Pope Pius VII]] and had the contents of the library seized and removed to [[Paris]]. They were returned in 1817, three years after Napoleon's defeat and abdication.<ref name=UofA/>

The library's first major revitalization project took place in the period between the two World Wars at the instigation of [[Pope Pius XI]], himself a scholar and former librarian, with the cooperation of librarians from around the world. Until this point in time, while it had drawn on the expertise of numerous experts, the Vatican Library was dangerously lacking in organization and its junior librarians were undertrained.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Vincenti |first=Raffaella |date=2020 |title=The Vatican Library and the IFLA between 1928 and 1929 |url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/jelis.61.3.2020-0019 |journal=Journal of Education for Library and Information Science |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=308–318 |doi=10.3138/jelis.61.3.2020-0019 |s2cid=225396835 |issn=0748-5786 |access-date=28 November 2022 |archive-date=25 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025071341/https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/jelis.61.3.2020-0019 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Foreign researchers, particularly Americans, noticed how inadequate the facilities were for such an important collection. Several American organizations, including the [[American Library Association]] and the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]], offered to assist in implementing a modern cataloguing system.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Patrick Valentine |date=2010 |title=The Vatican Library and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: The History, Impact, and Influence of Their Collaboration (1927–1947)|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lac.2010.0025 |journal=Libraries & the Cultural Record |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=503–504 |doi=10.1353/lac.2010.0025 |s2cid=162118890 |issn=1932-9555 |access-date=28 November 2022 |archive-date=10 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310120335/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/400906 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Along with this, librarians from the Vatican Library were invited to visit several libraries in the United States to receive training on the functioning of a modern library. They visited the [[Library of Congress]], and libraries in Princeton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Chicago, Champaign, Toronto, and Ann Arbor. Once back in Rome, a reorganization plan was implemented. The main goals were to create a summary index by author of each manuscript, and likewise a catalogue for the incunabula. Once the project was completed, the Vatican Library was one of the most modern in all of Europe. This joint effort highlighted the importance of international relationships in the  field of librarianship and led to the founding in 1929 of the [[International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions|International Federation of Library Associations]], still at work.<ref name=":0" />

In 1992 the library had almost 2&nbsp;million [[Library catalogue|catalogued]] items.<ref name=ibiblio/>

Among a number of thefts from the Library committed in modern times, in 1995 art history teacher Anthony Melnikas from [[Ohio State University]] stole three [[Leaf (books)|leaves]] from a medieval manuscript once owned by [[Francesco Petrarch]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=HONAN|first1=WILLIAM H.|author-link=William H. Honan|title=Teacher Tied to Stolen Manuscript Pages Faced Prior Ethics Questions, Colleagues Say|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/30/us/teacher-tied-stolen-manuscript-pages-faced-prior-ethics-questions-colleagues-say.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=1 August 2014|date=30 May 1995|archive-date=11 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811011934/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/30/us/teacher-tied-stolen-manuscript-pages-faced-prior-ethics-questions-colleagues-say.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Montalbano1995">{{cite web|last1=MONTALBANO|first1=WILLIAM D.|title=U.S. Scholar Suspected in Theft of Manuscript Pages|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-25-mn-5895-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=1 August 2014|date=25 May 1995|archive-date=12 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812194737/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-05-25/news/mn-5895_1_medieval-manuscripts|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the stolen leaves contains an exquisite miniature of a farmer threshing grain. A fourth leaf from an unknown source was also discovered in his possession by U.S. Customs agents. Melnikas was trying to sell the pages to an art dealer, who then alerted the library director.<ref name=Montalbano1995/>