The Vatican Library closes for three years
PrintAt present none of the collections is available for consultation.

The Vatican Library will be closed to the public starting July 14, 2007, for important refurbishment works which are expected to last for three years. The refurbishment could not be delayed because of serious structural problems in a wing of the sixteenth-century building which houses the Library. Technicians have established that it is impossible to reinforce the floors and other structures without closing the Library to the public. The management of the Library had sought to avoid inconvenience for the public, e. g. by moving more than 300,000 volumes out of the areas where the floors had begun to weaken; but the experts have decided that the refurbishment works could not be postponed. Once the necessity of the structural work had been established, it was decided to take this opportunity to modernize certain parts of the building, including new air conditioners and elevators. Likewise, a general reorganization of the Library’s collections will also be undertaken.

During the closure, many of the Library’s books will be moved to temporary stacks. However, copies of manuscripts and of rare books are available through the photographic reproduction service, which will continue to operate. Orders may be made, as usual, by following the instructions which may be found on this site (Photographic Reproductions).

Please note that the Vatican Film Library of the University of St. Louis, USA, has in its possession more than 37,000 microfilms of manuscripts from our library, including most of the collections of manuscripts in Greek, Latin, and modern languages, as well as some material in Arabic, Hebrew and Ethiopian. The Vatican Film Library also possesses a large collection of manuscript catalogues, including all the published catalogues and copies of the unpublished inventories of the Vatican Library, the complete “Studi e Testi” series, and many works on palaeography, codicology, miniature painting and other disciplines which are useful for the study of manuscripts and of their texts. It also possesses the microfiche edition of the Palatine Library (more than 12,000 printed books) and of the Cicognara Library (more than 4,800 titles on art history, architecture and archaeology).