Vatican Library going on-line

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Vatican Library have announced they intended to digitise 1.5 million pages of ancient texts and make them freely available online.

The initiative has been made possible by a 2 million pound award from the Polonsky Foundation.

The libraries said the digitised collections will centre on three subject areas: Greek manuscripts, 15th-century printed books and Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books. The areas have been chosen for the strength of the collections in both libraries and their importance for scholarship in their respective fields.

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, Librarian of the Vatican Library, said “the service to humanity which the Vatican Library has accomplished over almost six centuries, by preserving its cultural treasures and making them available to readers, now finds new avenue which confirms and amplifies its universal vocation through the use of new tools.”