Vatican Library and Japanese firm NTT DATA sign accord for digital archiving project
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican Apostolic Library and the Japanese firm NTT DATA on Thursday
signed an agreement that will result in the rapid digitalization of 3,000 valuable
historical manuscripts over the next four years. It’s the first step in the planned
digitalization of all the 82,000 manuscripts preserved in the Library. The project
was announced at a news conference held in the Holy See’s Press Office that included
interventions by Monsignor Jean Louis Brugues, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy
Roman Church, Monsignor Cesare Pasini, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library and
by Toshio Iwamoto, the President and CEO of NTT DATA. After scanning and archiving
the digitalized manuscripts, all of them will be released on the Library’s website
as high-definition image data. The project was described as a new milestone in making
available to scholars and the general public the immense treasure of valuable historical
manuscripts that the Vatican Apostolic Library is preserving for mankind.