Vatican Library, National library in Vatican City.
The Vatican Library contains over 80,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed volumes within the Vatican Palace complex.
Pope Nicholas V established the Vatican Library in 1450 by acquiring manuscripts from Constantinople after its Ottoman conquest.
The library preserves extensive collections of Greek and Latin classics, religious texts, and scientific manuscripts from different civilizations.
Scholars receive access to research materials through a structured system that accommodates 200 researchers simultaneously in specialized reading rooms.
The library maintains laboratories dedicated to manuscript restoration and implements advanced preservation techniques for its rare document collection.
Location: Vatican City
Inception: 1450
Address: Cortile del Belvedere, V-00120 Città del Vaticano
Phone: +390669879411
Email: bav@vatlib.it
Website: https://vaticanlibrary.va
GPS coordinates: 41.90472,12.45444
Latest update: May 28, 2025 18:11
European historic libraries and bookshops preserve written heritage accumulated over centuries. From Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon, founded in 1732 and still operating at the same location, to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which has housed over 13 million works since 1602, these sites reflect the evolution and dissemination of books. Livraria Lello in Porto is notable for its curved wooden staircase and neo-Gothic woodwork from 1906, while Dominicanen Bookshop in Maastricht is housed in a converted 13th-century church. These spaces are distinguished by their architecture, from baroque to neo-Gothic, and by their function preserved across centuries. The Celsus Library in Izmir, built in 135 AD, used double walls to protect its 12,000 parchments from humidity. Hatchards in London has been operating since 1797 over five floors in Piccadilly, whereas Shakespeare and Company in Paris has maintained its English-language tradition since 1951 opposite Notre-Dame. These institutions offer visitors the chance to explore places where the history of the book is engraved in stone and wood.
Sistine Chapel
197 m
Laocoön and His Sons
4.1 km
Vatican Museums
186 m
Apostolic Palace
203 m
Augustus of Prima Porta
194 m
Apollo Belvedere
186 m
Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes
185 m
Sphere Within Sphere
114 m
Cortile del Belvedere
66 m
Bramante staircases
187 m
Borgia Apartment
161 m
Gallery of Maps
66 m
Pinacoteca Vaticana
178 m
Museo Pio Clementino
203 m
Niccoline Chapel
148 m
Apoxyomenos Pio-Clementino
186 m
Casina Pio IV
173 m
Vatican loggias
203 m
Gregorian Tower
50 m
Museo Chiaramonti
156 m
Anima Mundi
186 m
Nile
54 m
Gregorian Egyptian Museum
176 m
Belvedere Villa (Vatican)
66 m
Collection of Modern Religious Art, Vatican Museums
161 m
Fontana della Galera
189 m
Via Triumphalis necropolis
155 m
Fontana del Sacramento
164 mReviews
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