The Last Medieval Pope

Others may dispute it, but I call Nicholas V the Last Medieval Pope because he saw the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks and the end of the Hundred Years War (I explain more here).

Born Tomasso Parentucelli (13 November 1397 - 24 March 1455), his father died when he was young, leaving Tomasso unable to complete his education until many years later. Achieving a degree in theology, he was hired by Bishop Niccolò Albergati, spending the next 20 years as the bishop's personal assistant and librarian, helping the bishop to acquire a large library. He read as well as curated; his wide knowledge of theology made him valuable and respected.

When Albergati died, Tommaso was offered the position of bishop, but Bologna was going through a some political troubles that made his appointment unlikely. Pope Eugene IV sent him on diplomatic missions at which Tommaso was so successful that he earned a cardinal's hat. Upon Eugene's death, Tommaso was elected to succeed him, taking the name Nicholas to honor his original patron.

He carried his love of learning and arts to the papacy. During his time:

—A library of 5000 volumes was created, including manuscripts rescued from Constantinople after it fell to the Turks. More on the evolution of the new Vatican Library can be found here.

—He promoted the new humanist learning, sending emissaries East to invite Greek scholars from Constantinople.

—He started his papacy by restoring the major Roman basilicas, and cleaning and paving main streets.

—He restored the Aqua Virgo, one of the 11 main aqueducts that used to supply the city before they crumbled into ruin after the fall of Rome. It emptied into a basin that later became the famous Trevi Fountain.

—He had Lorenzo Valla translate Greek histories and literature to make them available to the West.

(He is also known as a supporter of slavery of non-Christians, mentioned here, which later caused controversy among two Christian nations.)

As part of his rebuilding plan, he took 2522 cartloads of marble from the Colosseum, which at that time was used basically as a quarry. The Colosseum has been barely mentioned here, and you might be interested to know what the Middle Ages thought of this great Roman wonder...next time.

The Vatican Acquisitions

Thanks to Pope Nicholas V's desire to create a magnificent public library in 1451, many ancient manuscripts were saved that might otherwise have been lost to obscurity.

Some popes had personal collections that they donated to the library. Some acquisitions were the result of favors, such as when the Duke of Bavaria in 1623 gave the Palatine Library of Heidelberg (about 3500 manuscripts) to Pope Gregory XV because of Gregory's political support (they weren't the Duke's anyway: he looted them during the Thirty Year's War).

The Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648) saw a lot of looting of libraries from Prague and Germany, much of which added to the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden. Upon her death in 1689, Pope Alexander VIII purchased her collection, which was essentially the entire Swedish Royal Library. This purchase and re-location turned out to be fortuitous: the Royal Palace where the library had been housed was destroyed in a fire in 1697.

In the Vatican Library, qualified researchers have access to some of the oldest manuscripts in the world, many of them unique.

One of them is the Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest and most complete copies of the Greek Old and New Testaments. It has been dated to the 4th century. The Gelasian Sacramentary is one of the oldest books on Christian liturgy, with prayers for special masses. The Books of Luke and John from the Lorsch Gospels (Carolingian era) with carved ivory covers reside here (other parts are in the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Batthyaneum Library).

There are also many non-religious texts, such as one of the earliest copies of Vergil, the 5th century Vergilius Romanus, with the Aeneid, the Georgics, and some Eclogues. They also have a 9th century copy of Terence's Comedies, parts of Euclid's Elements, and the poems of Catullus.

The collection also includes interesting selections from outside Europe, such as the sole copy in existence of a 13th century Arabic love story, Hadith Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ ("The Story of Bayad and Riyad"). The library also contains the pre-Columbian Codex Borgia, one of only a handful of mesoamerican codices not destroyed by Europeans. It is 39 sheets of animal skins portraying information about the Central American gods, rituals, and calendar.

You can also find fragments of a 9th century Old Saxon Genesis, the Libri Carolini ("Charles' books"; four volumes ordered by Charlemagne to refute the Second Council of Nicaea), a 1240s treatise on falconry, a pre-1400 Croatian prayer book, medieval music manuscripts, and over 100 Qurans.

Even if you are not a qualified researcher, you can see some of the collection on their website. In 2012 they collaborated with the Bodleian Library of Oxford to start digitizing a million pages. Since 2012 there have been other projects to digitize more of the collection.

Regarding the Libri Carolini mentioned above: Charlemagne commissioned this in the 790s, had it completed, and then never sent it. What its purpose was and why he decided not to go through with it are worth a look, which we'll do tomorrow.

The Vatican Library

In 1451, Pope Nicholas V wanted to establish a library at the Vatican. A "library" existed already—since popes had gathered important texts and manuscripts—but not in any formal way. The Avignon Papacy (1309 - 1376) had seen an increase in book collection over the course of seven popes, but Nicholas was hoping to promote Rome as a destination for scholarship, so he wanted to make a public library that would attract scholars.

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.