Vatican Library is the library of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City. It has one of the world’s most important collections of early manuscripts and books. Nicholas V, pope from 1447 to 1455, founded the modern library to house handwritten manuscripts. Before the modern Vatican Library, however, there had been earlier papal libraries as far back as the 500’s.
The Vatican Library is still chiefly a manuscript library, though it now also has printed books in its collection. The library has thousands of old and valuable Latin manuscripts, and it also contains important Greek and Asian manuscripts. The library’s collections are available to scholars who can show the need to use the library for research. The library closed for renovation in 2007, reopening in 2010.
