Vatican and Bodleian libraries to digitise ancient texts

The Apostolic Vatican Library and the Bodleian Library of Oxford University have announced they intend to digitise 1.5 million pages of ancient texts and make them freely available online. The collaborative project between the two libraries has been made possible thanks to a £2 million award from the Polonsky Foundation. The Vatican Library houses a priceless collection that includes over 1.6 million books, 8300 incunabula (early printed books) and 75,000 manuscripts.

The Deputy Librarian of the Bodleian, Richard Ovenden, told Susy Hodges that it's a "very significant" project that will "make a huge impact on the scholarly world in developing a shared digital library of great books and manuscripts." He describes the Vatican library as one of the most incredible libraries in the world and says "the thought of unlocking and opening up the doors of the Vatican library through the power of the internet to make its riches accessible to scholars is one of the most exciting things about this project."

Listen to the full interview by Susy Hodges with Richard Ovenden: