More than 80,000 Vatican manuscripts will be restored and digitized

More than 80,000 old manuscripts of the Vatican Apostolic Library will be restored and digitized thanks to an agreement with the Colnaghi Foundation. The initiative seeks to preserve unique documents and facilitate world access to this church treasure.

The shelves of the apostolic library of the Vatican guard a good part of the editorial memory of humanity. There are more than 82,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books (more than 8,000 of them, incunable).

Among the jewels of its catalog are a document with Botticelli’s illustrations to the Divine comedy or the only almost complete copy that has reached this day of The Republic of Cicero.

Humidities or decomposition of inks by the passage of time have turned their conservation into a true headache for all pontiffs.

“The preserved organic material is in a very deteriorated phase and would disappear if we do not act to restore it in the best possible way,” says Aci Press, Candida Modovica de Angelis Corvi, of the Colnaghi Foundation, which has just signed an agreement with the Vatican for the next five years precisely to stop this wear.

The agreement includes an ambitious digitalization project “that will allow scholars remote access to important documents that are now only available in person,” he explains. The director of this prestigious commercial art gallery, founded in 1760, says that there will be “a deep democratic impact of accessibility to knowledge.”

One of the main advantages offered by this collaboration is that the Vatican Apostolic Library can use a special and unique scanner of the Factum company, a subsidiary of the Colnaghi group. “When you go through the surface, you are able to obtain more details, for example, about the dating of the work itself,” he explains.

In addition, this device also allows you to bring to light parts that are hidden in sight. “There is a temporary stratification within the same role. Below what we see there are previous recordings. There could be a secret message or could simply be the need to reuse a role, but it is fascinating to be able to decipher in depth what is behind each manuscript,” he says.

In addition, the project also foresees an architectural renewal of the library that will be carried out by the company David Chipperfield, founded by the renowned British London architect 40 years ago.

The Pope’s library, which since 2012 directs the Italian, Raffaella Vincenti, has welcomed this collaboration with great enthusiasm. “We want to express our deep gratitude to the Colnaghi Foundation for its generous support for several important library projects, which reinforce our commitment to the dissemination of culture,” says the institution’s prefect, Mons. Cesare Pasini.

Obras inéditas de Caravaggio, Bernini, Tintoretto y Tiziano

To celebrate this collaboration between the art world and ecclesiastical institutions, today the exhibition has opened its doors Codexthat brings together 14 works of private collections and that, therefore, are not usually in sight. In fact, visits to this sample are limited to a special permit that must be asked of the Vatican through the Apostolic Library. On June 2, the works will return to private collections.

The exposed works make up a visual and historical tour of sacred art and the Renaissance and Baroque portrait, highlighting pieces of some of the greatest teachers in history.

The exhibition opens with San Pedro penitent of the flamenco artist Anthony van Dyck that represents the apostle in tears, with a deeply human expression of repentance, marked by the Baroque chiaroscuro.

Next to the painting, they have placed the letter, preserved in the Vatican funds, with which the archbishop of Seville Mons. Antonio Salinas, who commissioned the painting, granted the plenary indulgence to the faithful.

Continue with The triumph of Flora, An mythological allegory made by Mario Nuzzi of exuberant in color and symbolism, celebrates the fertility of nature with a festive and decorative spirit that contrasts with the seriousness of other pieces.

Another of the works exhibited is the preparatory sketch of Miguel Ángel for The worship of the bronze snake, A powerful Old Testament scene. The drawing demonstrates the anatomical and expressive intensity of the artist, who manages to condense drama and redemption in a single figure. In addition, he is accompanied by an unfinished mural fragment of a male nude seen three quarters, also by Miguel Ángel.

Another of the most quoted pieces is the Retrate de Maffeo Barberini, A work by Caravaggio, painted around 1598, which represents the future Urban Pope VIII when I was about 30 years old. The painting shows Barberini sitting, emerging from the shadows, with a modestly illuminated face with a black toga and a bonnet, holding a document in the left hand and pointing with the right, which suggests an interaction with a figure outside the visual field. This portrait remained in a private collection in Florence for decades and was attributed to Caravaggio by historian Roberto Lonchi in 1963.

The exhibition includes works by other of the most influential artists in the 16th and sixteenth centuries such as the Portrait of Pope Paul III REalized by Tiziano during his trip to Rome between October 1545 and May 1546. This picture, in which the Pope appears with a sagaz look and the traditional red bed, symbol of his authority, belongs to a private collection and is located in Lisbon (Portugal).

Another portrait is that of Clements live, made by Sebastiano del Piombo. From Tintoretto, highlights the Rettyus of Cardenal Marcantonio da Mula, which shows the painter’s ability to combine dignity with dynamism.