On Jan. 8, Father Leonard Boyle, Dominican priest and prefect of the Vatican Library, took a large group of visitors in the Members' Room in the Jefferson Building, on a "tour" of the Vatican Library.
Equipped with an impressive collection of color slides, quips and anecdotes, Father Boyle drew on nine years of experience as caretaker and former patron of the Vatican's vast archival treasures, to trace the Library's origins and history.
This event was the first in a series of lectures on Renaissance culture sponsored by Catholic University of America and the Library of Congress, with a generous grant from from Leo A. Daly.
Father Boyle began by describing the current exhibition of items from the Vatican Library in the Jefferson Building's Great Hall, "Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture," as an "interlibrary loan."
"I get calls from international journals and organizations all the time asking, 'Do you loan items from the library?' 'No!' I tell them, and yet, here we are, loaning out half the library!
"This exhibition offers a representative look at every class and category of the Vatican collection," he added. "The holdings are so diverse, before I arrived here on Monday, I'd never seen all of these items together."
The prefect displayed detailed views and traced the history of various locations and features of the Library; among them, the Palace of Nicholas V, the Borgia Tower, the Tower of the Winds, the Archives and the Belvedere Courtyard, which is cut in two by the Library, (a decision made by Pope Sixtus V, which architects then and since have denounced vigorously, according to Father Boyle).
He also described the personalities and goals of those who established a library which, as Nicholas V, the Vatican Library's founder, wrote in 1451, was built "for the common convenience of the learned."
"Nicholas V was an undistinguished bloke before he became pope in 1447," Father Boyle said matter of factly. "But he was enamored of Greek and Latin, and upon his death in 1555, left behind 1,100 codices in Greek and Latin."
In describing the next pope to continue establishing an impressive but widely available library collection, Father Boyle pointed out that Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) appropriated much of the language his predecessor used to describe the Library's mision and even went so far as to embellish Nicholas V's coat of arms "stemma" with his own oak leaf scroll work. Sixtus V also installed Bartolomeo Platina as the library's first prefect and several more staff, and refurbished and increased the library's space by adding a room, endownments and administrative offices.
Sixtus V continued in this vein, increasing Library's collection of archives from a variety of secular sources and expanding its confines. But he also exercised a strong hand in matters outside the Vatican Library.
"In his five years as pope, Sixtus V [1585-1590] cleaned up Rome, hanging all of the bandits from bridges and devising the same town plan that exists today -- although those visiting Rome may not think there is a town plan," he added with a grin.
In describing the library that Sixtus V constructed to the north of the Belvedere Courtyard, (and, though changed, is still in use today), Father Boyle pointed to a slide showing a series of paintings, referring to them as "scenes from my life -- that of Sixtus V."
"He was impatient and hard working, didn't stand fools," the prefect explained. "His motto [loosely translated] was, "impatience toward inanity." That will be my motto when I become pope," he added, to a room full of approving laughter.
Throughout his "tour" Father Boyle pointed out many examples of beautiful artwork gracing the library's walls and ceiling along with treasures purchased from their owners or relinquished by unfortunates plagued by war or death.
One of the lower register paintings in the Salone Sostino (Sixtus V's 40-seat reading room), for example, depicts Sixtus V's coronation procession. Four figures seated "uneasily" on their horses are visiting Japanese princes who, Father Boyle explained, "arrived and were made "cavalieri" that very morning." This painting represents the first recorded presence of Japanese in Europe, who traveled from Spain to Venice and then Rome. Japanese tourists are disappointed to learn the silk screen the princes presented to Sixtus V in 1590 was lost in the intervening years and has never been found.
Fascinating bits of trivia and unique discoveries abound throughout the library. The policy of storing books in cupboards, with paths or fire lanes between them to keep fires from spreading was introduced at the Vatican Library. The collection includes many unique items, such as a 1,600-page Bible written on parchment made of antelope skin, the great codices of Virgil and Latin collections belonging to bishops who, if they died while traveling to or from Rome automatically "bequeathed" their possessions -- called "spoils" to the Vatican.
Then there were the spoils of Heidelberg. Thousands of books and manuscripts that formed the basis of the Palatine Library were donated to the Vatican Library by Maximilian of Bavaria after he captured the Protestant stronghold in 1622.
"Heidelberg makes noises about that, but mostly affectionate ones," Father Boyle remarked. "In 1986 we sent 286 manuscrips there for a short time on loan; they all came back safely. In retrospect, it's fortunate that they wound up in Rome when they did. In 1693 the French burned the Church housing much of the Palatine collection; if kept there, it might all have been lost. Unfortunately, we've learned that the other half, in Romania, is missing and may have been destroyed."
After describing these and many other treasures in the Vatican's vast collection, Father Boyle reflected on the many changes in the library since its early days, before the advent of card catalogs, personal computers and other forms of emerging technology that one day will allow patrons all over the world to access the Library's archives from their homes or offices (story on page 53). The library has come a long way in less than 70 years.
"As late as 1926, people came from the United States looking for books. They were told, 'There's no card catalog at the Vatican Library but, don't worry, the people there know what's in it,' " Father Boyle recalled.
Thanks to the generosity of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and expertise offered by the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan, Vatican Library staff traveled to the United States in 1927 to study library science and work in the Library of Congress's cataloging department, where they also helped to refine the Library's classification of theology. A team of cataloging experts then traveled to the Vatican to show the library's staff how to catalog their collection of printed books. The Library of Congress began providing a duplicate set of printed cataloging cards on Vatican titles, modified to reflect Italian titles and subheadings, a practice that continues today albeit in automated form. At this time, the reading rooms were renovated, the level of lighting was improved and a new entrance was opened.
Father Boyle also pointed out that many among the staff were suspicious of the project. They were uncomfortable with the fact that printed books, as opposed to manuscripts, were receiving so much attention.
"Not everyone welcomed the advent of the card catalog," Father Boyle recalled. "Many opposed it and referred [disparagingly] to Eugene Tisserant, scriptore and later joint prefect, as 'L'Americano.' But things change, and today everyone is so proud of the card catalog they've forgotten where it came from," he joked.
"When the opportunity arose to thank the Library of Congress for its contributions, I jumped at it," Father Boyle said. "This exhibition is an act of thanks, long overdue, to everyone in North America who has helped the Vatican Library to fully document the collection and make it more available available to visitors from all over the world."
