He brought together his personal library, about 350 Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts from his predecessors, and items from the Library of Constantinople. He hired scholars to translate Greek classics into Latin. He also wanted non-religious texts. In a few years, the collection held 1200 books, one-third of them in Greek.
In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV added the Palatine Library, aiming at collecting theology, philosophy, and artistic literature. In 1481, the Palatine listed 2,527 books, at that time the largest library in the world.
In 1587, Pope Sixtus V had a new building constructed to hold the growing collection. This building is still used today, and from this point was referred to as the Vatican Library. In modern times the first semi-basement houses a papyrus room. The first floor houses a restoration laboratory. The second floor holds a photographic archive.
It was intended to be a public library. During the Renaissance, books were not stored on shelves, but chained to benches with tables nearby where visitors could study the texts. These days, some of the collection is open to the public, but for most access you need to have appropriate credentials and be a professional researcher, a university professor, or a PhD student. The rules of the library allow access by 200 people at a time.
Besides one of the largest collections of books in the world (if not the largest), the Vatican Library contains 20,000 works of art and over 300,000 historical coins and medals.
Tomorrow I'll tell you about some of the acquisitions and how they came to the library.
