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Vatican Launches Exhibition on Preserving Knowledge

7:05 AM ETConfirmed

Faith Desk

In Short: The Vatican Apostolic Library has inaugurated a series of exhibitions aimed at highlighting its long-standing commitment to preserving printed knowledge.

The Vatican Apostolic Library has inaugurated a series of exhibitions aimed at highlighting its long-standing commitment to preserving printed knowledge. The first exhibition, titled AQVA, delves into the dual nature of water as both a threat and a life-sustaining force.

In 1591, Monsignor Angelo Rocca, secretary to Pope Sixtus V, published a description of the Vatican Library that included detailed rules for preventive book conservation, such as managing room ventilation, controlling humidity, and protecting manuscripts from excessive light exposure.

The exhibition titled “Catastrophe and Wonder” will explore threats to knowledge preservation such as fire, water, light, insects, and humans. It features a 230-feet installation “Diluvium” by French artist JR, illustrating a Biblical flood, juxtaposed with nearly 500-year-old manual illustrations.

In the early 1980s, the Vatican constructed a climate-controlled bunker beneath the Cortile del Belvedere capable of storing over 50 miles of shelves to protect the Vatican library collection in case of nuclear or biochemical threats.

Pope Leo, during his visit to the Vatican Library, announced his decision to significantly extend the space available to the library and archives. He also mentioned that his mother was a librarian, adding a personal touch to the occasion.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish a new document on the transmission of the faith, titled Venite ad Me, in mid-October, after consulting bishops’ conferences from around the world.

The document aims to address various paths and different possibilities to encourage reflection within each diocese on the difficulties and new opportunities for transmitting faith in Jesus Christ to others in the world in which we live.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• In 1591, Monsignor Angelo Rocca, secretary to Pope Sixtus V, published a description of the Vatican Library that included detailed rules for preventive book conservation such as managing room ventilation, controlling humidity, and protecting manuscripts from excessive light exposure to prevent parchment from warping and inks from fading.
• “The starting point of the entire exhibition cycle was Gaetano Volpi’s bibliophilic treatise ‘Del furore d’aver libri’ (1756), which lists the dangers that threaten the preservation of books: from water to fire, from light to animals, and even the damage inflicted by human beings themselves on their cultural heritage,” said Rev. Giacomo Cardinali, Library Vice Prefect and Commissioner for Exhibitions, in a press release.
• The exhibition titled “Catastrophe and Wonder” will explore threats to knowledge preservation such as fire, water, light, insects and humans.
• While many of us probably think that protecting knowledge has mostly to do with cultural initiatives like promoting literacy and expanding access to education, protecting books also requires a very practical strategy to ensure the physical integrity of these sources of knowledge.
• Very soon, the Vatican emerged as an innovator in the field of book preservation.
• It was Pope Nicholas V who, in the mid-15th century, first opened the papal book collections to scholars establishing the Vatican library as a place of universal knowledge exchange.
• The text will be titled Venite ad Me, Latin for “Come to Me.” The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish a new document on the transmission of the faith, titled Venite ad Me, in mid-October.
• Second, he visited the Vatican Library for the first time as pope to open an exhibition centered on water and, while there, announced his decision to significantly extend the space available to the library and archives.
• He issued the decree with a chirograph, or handwritten document, that the Vatican made public after his visit The Vatican Library and Archives, with their priceless and historic collection of manuscripts and books, traces its origins back to the fourth century of the Christian Era, and began its “modern” phase in the 15th century with Pope Nicholas V, who decided to open the papal collection of books to scholars, as Vatican media recently reported, adding that Pope Sixtus VI gave a more stable structure in 1475.
• The head of the Vatican Library and Archives, the Italian archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pegazzi, did not let the pope’s birthday pass without giving him a gift: In the name of the staff, he arranged for Leo to be presented with a birthday cake with just one candle, which Leo blew out as the staff present sang “Tanti Auguri a te!” (“Happy birthday to you!”).
• In the early 1980s, the Vatican constructed a climate-controlled bunker beneath the Cortile del Belvedere capable of storing over 50 miles of shelves to protect the Vatican library collection in case of nuclear or biochemical threats.
• In the belief that, in the face of fear, it is wiser to pause and move through it, the Vatican enlisted three extraordinarily creative minds—an artist, a typographer, and a chef—to discover unexpected horizons precisely within what usually frightens us.

What's still developing

• The 230-feet installation “Diluvium” by French artist JR illustrates a Biblical flood Ever since the invention of the printing press in 1440, the Holy See has actively pursued the dissemination, protection and promotion of printed knowledge.
• This is the “tragedy of atheistic humanism”, well described by a leading theologian of the Second Vatican Council, Henri de Lubac. [1] The Counci l wishes to provide a clear answer: Christians, states Gaudium et Spes, “can justly consider that by their labour they are unfolding the Creator’s work, consulting the advantages of their brother men, and are contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan” (no. 34 ).
• Pope Leo continued his reflection on the Vatican II document dealing with the Church and the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, in the general audience of September 23, today taking up the first part of Chapter 3.
• As we continue our journey through the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, we come to the third chapter of the first part, which bears the intriguing title: “Man’s Activity Throughout the World”.
• According to the Vatican source, 70% of them responded.
• The Vatican broke the news of the restoration of full salaries to the cardinals, senior officials and other officials of the Holy See by publishing today an apostolic letter, in the form of a “motu proprio,” which Leo had signed on Sept. 1, repealing the decree imposing the reductions introduced by Francis on March 23, 2021.
• With that decree, Pope Francis reduced the salaries of cardinals, senior officials, clerics and men and women religious working in all the institutions of the Holy See—of which the Roman Curia is a central part—as well as in the governorate of the Vatican City State.
• “This gives the text a strongly universal character that reflects a wide variety of concerns and contexts regarding the transmission of the faith,” the source noted.
• “Given that in many parts of the world the faith is transmitted with increasing difficulty, the question is how we can successfully pass on the faith to others in the world in which we live,” the same source added.

Sources

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