(Vatican Radio) More than six centuries after it was founded by Pope Nicholas V, the
Vatican Library announced this week that it has made a first selection of ancient
manuscripts available for consultation online. The first 256 documents to be digitalised
form part of a broader project to make a large section of this prestigious archive
freely available to students, scholars, researchers and teachers. The library,
founded in 1451, has been supported in this work of digitalisation by a £2 million
grant from the Polonsky Foundation and other sponsors. Speaking to Vatican Radio
on Wednesday, the prefect of the Vatican Library, Mgr Cesare Pasini said it had taken
two years to make this first selection of manuscripts available online. He said the
majority of the documents have been digitalised as a result of a joint project with
the University of Heidelberg in Germany. A similar project with the Bodleian Libraries
in Oxford is also underway to make more of the material available as soon as possible. For
full details of how to obtain an electronic reader’s pass for access to these documents,
visit the website: www.vaticanlibrary.va