Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/397

The Vatican Library. 385 lished by him in 1825. Catalogues of the Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew MSS. are all being carried forward. In 1871 Pius IX. instituted as commissioners to report on the state of the library, under Cardinal Pitra, Aloysio Vincenzi and Commendatore G. B. De Rossi ; and all possible facilities were put in the hands of the latter, who had been connected with the library since 1851. This recension of the library went on till 1877. One of the first acts of the present Pope, Leo XIII., on ascending the papal chair in 1878, was to order the printing of the Vatican catalogues. 1 The throwing open of the secret archives of the Vatican to the world, by Leo XIII., marks an epoch in its history. 2 But more yet has been done. The rooms below the great hall of Sixtus V., which were formerly occupied by the armoury, have now been made into the chief centre for the printed books ; and 250,000, which used to be in the Borgia and other rooms, have been placed there. The actual transportation took only four- teen days. 8 The new library was opened by the Archbishop of Capua on Nov. 23, 1892. One section is filled with books of reference, chiefly for students of MSS., and expressly with a view to the international character of the library. Again recently, in fact last year, many volumes have been brought down from St. John Lateran to the Vatican ; and more of the papal registers, which now number some 8,000 volumes. Such is the history of what has been from the first one library only, though it falls into three periods ; which has undergone many vicissitudes, but never lost its continuity, at least virtually, from the commencement of the Christian epoch down to our time. 4 CHARLES SAYLE. 1 A special warning is issued by De Rossi to all to whom the care of large collections is entrusted, against the use of long titles. The Vatican did not adopt short titles till they had already issued three volumes, nor Pans till they had issued four. He cites the wisdom of the short titles employed by Vienna, Munich and Oxford. 2 Lanciani, op. dt., p. 204: "Closed to scholars, from the time of Pope Eugenius IV. to the time of Pope Pius IX." 3 For a detailed account of the transportation, &c., see Ugolini, op. ctt., pp. 5-16, 4 Carini, p. 164.