Vatican Library

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Vatican City, 10 May 2009Print

The Vatican Library celebrates the 75th World Congress of the IFLA

LUIGINA ORLANDI

Exactly eighty years ago, Rome hosted the first World Congress of Libraries and Bibliography , under the auspices of the International Library and Bibliographical Committee. The name of the organization was then established, namely IFLA, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The Congress was held from June 17th to 21st, 1929 , with 1,300 delegates representing 32 countries and professional associations. 140 papers were presented in 18 sessions; the Vatican Library was represented by Msgr Eugène Tisserant, who at that time was scriptor orientalis. The delegates were received in the Sistine Chapel by Pius XI, the Pope who had been a librarian for thirty years, first at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, and then in the Vatican Library. Many of the participants were able to visit the Vatican Library, where new stacks for printed books were being built and where certain catalographic innovations were underway. In the following days, the participants moved from Rome to Florence; and the closing ceremonies were held in Venice on June 29th and 30th.

The choice of Rome as a site of the Congress coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Anthony Panizzi and with the realization of an important project at the Vatican Library, which was in the process of modernizing its organization through a series of initiatives such as the re-cataloguing of the collections of printed books according to modern criteria, taking into account the development of international norms; the cataloguing of the incunabula; and the general index of manuscripts, later known as the Bishop Index, from the name of the person who proposed and supported it. These initiatives, which continued over several years and aroused a great deal of interest at the international level, were financed, for a large part, by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The organization profited from the counsel and the collaboration of the Library of Congress, with the involvement of major personalities in the world of Library Science at that time, who came from the United States (though some were originally from other countries) and met in Rome on the occasion of the Congress. The catalographic description of the book collections of the Vatican Library, which matured through a process of careful reflection, comparison and verification according to international norms, produced the Norme per la catalogazione degli stampati, which were published in 1931. The works, which began in 1927, involved also the structures of the Library, with the reorganization of the reading rooms, the rationalization of the spaces and the opening of a new entrance. From the beginning, the modernization project of the Vatican Library enjoyed the full support of the Pope, who provided a large area under the Lapidary Gallery (built by Bramante) for the new stacks for printed books. In this space, the Library, at considerable expense, installed state-of-the-art metal shelving by Snead & Co. of Jersey City, New Jersey. Just four months earlier, the Vatican and Italy had signed the Lateran Accords (Treaty and Concordat, February 11th), which ratified the birth of the Vatican City State; and Pope Ratti was busy "constructing" and organizing this small state in all of its details; the Library was also involved in this process. It was a moment of great importance in the long history of the Vatican Library.

Now, in the year 2009, the IFLA returns to Italy: its 75th World Congress will take place in Milan from the 23rd to the 27th of August .

To celebrate this event, the Vatican Library has proposed the issue of a commemorative postage stamp, realized by the Governorate of the Vatican City State.

The stamp reproduces a detail of "Codex B" (Vat. gr. 1209), one of the most important Biblical manuscripts to be preserved in the Vatican Library, together with a drawing of the sixteenth-century façade of the current site of the Library, which was realized by Domenico Fontana in Bramante's courtyard. With this initiative, the Vatican Library intends to give a concrete sign of its appreciation for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, for the role it has played and continues to play in the diffusion of knowledge, especially in difficult times, promoting collaboration and sharing between persons and institutions in all parts of the world. It also expresses its thanks to the Italian Organizing Committee of the 2009 Congress for the great efforts it has made for a successful meeting. The Vatican Library is currently closed to the public and will remain so until 2010, in order to allow important building works involving the consolidation of the existing structures and the reorganization of many of its rooms. We are aware that these works have caused some inconvenience to many readers; but the intention, today just as surely as eighty years ago, is to render an ever more useful service to the community of scholars who frequent our institution.

(AIB Notizie, in press)

i There had in fact been earlier international congresses, of which the first was held in London in 1877; but the Roman congress was the first to be held under the auspices of an international committee, which had been formed in Edinburgh in 1927.
ii “The establishment of the International Library and Bibliographical Committee was officially declared in Rome (1928)”, IFLA Journal 28 (2002), p. 3.
iii The inauguration was held at the Campidoglio on the morning of the 17th; in the afternoon, the participants went to the Aula Magna of the Accademia dei Lincei, in Palazzo Corsini, for the first general session.
iv The paper by Msgr Tisserant, entitled The Vatican Library (published by Snead & Co., Jersey City, 1929), included an introduction to the history of the Library and a report on the state of the works and projects which were then underway in the Vatican Library.
v Commemorated in the first general session by comm. Salvagnini, Director of the Italian Libraries; and by Arundell Esdaile, Secretary of the British Museum: see "Il Congresso delle Biblioteche", Osservatore Romano, 17th-18th June 1929, p. 3.
vi William Warner Bishop, Director of the Library of the University of Michigan, was the doyen of American librarians. He became involved in the project through Nicholas Murray Butler, President of the Carnegie Endowment; and he coordinated it with great commitment. He was the second President of the IFLA, from 1931 to 1936, after Isak Collijn (1927-1931), incunabulist and Director of the Royal Library of Stockholm. Collijn also participated in the project to reorganize the Vatican Library, giving suggestions on the best methods for cataloguing incunabula in a report which he wrote in Italian after he had conducted an investigative visit to the Vatican Library.
vii N. Mattioli-Háry, The Vatican Library and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: The History, Impact, and Influence of their Collaboration (1927-1947), Studi e Testi, 455, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2009.
viii To commemorate this event, an exhibition has been organized, entitled “1929-2009: Eighty Years of Vatican City State", in the Braccio di Carlo Magno (St. Peter's Square), 11th February – 10th May 2009. The catalogue of the exhibit has been published by the Vatican Library, which is the largest contributor of materials and the main collaborator of this exhibition organized by the Governorate of the Vatican City State.
ix In the meantime, congresses have been held in Rome also in 1951 and in 1964.
x The Second World War brought about an almost total paralysis of the activities of the IFLA. The meetings were able to resume only in 1947, in Oslo, with 52 delegates from 18 countries.