Through its Exhibitions Service, the Vatican Library allows its collections of manuscripts, printed books, prints, coins and medals to be used for cultural projects which intend to promote the diffusion of knowledge. Ecclesiastical property belongs specifically to the Christian community; however, due to the universal nature of the Christian message, one can say that it also belongs to all of humanity. To promote wider knowledge of its inestimable treasures of wisdom and beauty, the Library grants a limited number of loans from its collections to the world's major museums for temporary exhibition. Such loans are granted only for projects which have a scientific purpose, or for major exhibitions of a cultural or religious nature. Human culture, or rather human cultures constitute an open field for evangelization, and form a context in which the Library gladly makes its voice heard to the men and women of our time.
The Prefect of the Library, supported by the relevant Committee and in accordance with the Regulations which have been approved by the Secretariat of State, makes a careful choice among the many requests for loans which are received every year. He also takes into account the fact that the main tasks of the Library are to preserve and transmit to posterity its precious collections, and to make them available in the Library itself for scholars from around the world to consult and study.

2023 EXHIBITIONS

The exhibition, entitled The Sovereign Image: Urban VIII and the Barberini, organized at Palazzo Barberini, by the National Galleries of Ancient Art, to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the election to the papal throne of Maffeo Barberini, the patron-mecenate who outlined the essential features of the universal Baroque style, presents as central themes the ambitious political-cultural design pursued by Urban VIII during his twenty-year government (1623-1644) and how with the Barberini cultural hegemony becomes a true instrument of power. Rome (the Urbe), with which Maffeo identifies himself by assuming the name of Urban, and Palazzo Barberini constitute the public sphere and the stage of this far-sighted policy; in particular, the intent of the exhibition is also to show how the poetic production of the pontiff did not represent a delightful pastime but a programmatic commitment. For the occasion, the Library lent the following works: Barb.lat.4811, Barb.lat.4357, R.G.Neolat.III.54.

Of great diplomatic/cultural value was the exhibition organized by the National Palace Museum of Taipei Splendors of the Vatican Apostolic Library. Thanks to the exceptional loan of 42 original works, combined with images in different formats of 32 additional works, a chronological overview of the Vatican's acquisitions history was offered, highlighting the most important moments of the Institution's growth; it is emphasized how the Vatican Apostolic Library is the Pope's library, where books and other valuable documents have been collected, preserved, and made available to scholars for centuries. The exhibition, strongly supported by the governmental institutions of both parties, the result of scientific collaboration between the specialists belonging to the two institutions, the National Palace Museum of Taipei and the Vatican Apostolic Library, exemplifies the principles of sharing and scientific collaboration, being an example of a strong willingness to dialogue, a necessary prerequisite for true and deep cultural enrichment. The monumental exhibition, The Mystery of the Sun. Copernicus, son of the Renaissance, organized by the District Museum of Torun, the birthplace of the great astronomer, on the occasion of the 550th anniversary of his birth, was conceived to celebrate the enormous importance of the scientist's studies in the world of research and also to underline his close connection with the Italian Renaissance, following his studies in Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara, where the new heliocentric theory took root in him. The Library lent the Museum three invaluable prints of incomparable value, Stamp.Ross.5109, Stamp.Pal.III.103, Stamp.Pal.IV.585.

Noteworthy is the exhibition organized by the Scuderie del Quirinale, Fabulous Calvino, whose aim is to address an audience of Calvino admirers, including new readers who are only now approaching his work, offering a comprehensive, synthetic, and non-trivial profile of a writer capable of speaking more than others to contemporary consciousness. Calvino's work appears today more exemplary than ever for its curious and investigative attention to the various aspects of culture and reality and projecting towards the future. The Library's work, Vat.lat.6435, was exhibited in the section entitled "all the cosmos, here and now" where the protagonist is the season of "The Cosmicomics" not just a book, but a whole galaxy of stories that Italo Calvino continued to write for twenty years. The work is at the center of a text The Wanderer on the Map, appeared in the last collection of essays, published by Garzanti in 1984, a year before his death.

The Civic Museums of Bologna organized an interesting exhibition, entitled Lippo di Dalmasio: a Gothic painter between Tuscany and Emilia, aimed at retracing the studies dedicated to the master and art in the Bolognese context at the time of the construction site of San Petronio. Lippo di Dalmasio, a master of great fame and relevance, also held important political positions. He assimilated the artistic culture of the area by playing an important role as an artistic link between the two sides of the Apennines. Bologna experienced a moment of splendor during that period, characterizing itself as one of the largest and most populous cities in Europe. The high cultural level of its community was the basis for a refined artistic commission capable of attracting prestigious international masters: Lippo was thus a protagonist of that renewed communal season. The exhibition is divided into three sections and consists of about 40 works with dozens of paintings of certain attribution to the painter and others by masters of great celebrity of the period, such as panels by Simone dei Crocifissi and Jacopo di Paolo, Pierpaolo delle Masagne and Andrea da Fiesole. The Library participated with the loan of the work Vat.lat.2635.

The Metropolitan Museum of New York organized an innovative exhibition, entitled Africa and Byzantium, which explores the translations of Byzantine art and culture by local and foreign artists operating in northern and eastern Africa from the fourth to the fifteenth century and beyond. The rich exhibition includes 170 works, including frescoes, mosaics, jewelry, and illuminated manuscripts. These works attest to connections within a vast global network, linking cities along commercial routes extending from sub-Saharan Africa to the Indian Ocean. The Library lent the precious lectionary Barb.or.2.

REGULATIONS

The Exhibitions Service deals with all the steps involved in the process of planning, organizing and administering loans of works belonging to the Vatican Library. The Regulations which are currently in force require the borrower to send a request, including a description of the exhibition project, to the Secretariat of State (His Eminence Card. Pietro Parolin) and to the Prefect of the Library (Don Mauro Mantovani S.D.B.) at least 12 months before the inauguration of the exhibit. The total length of the loan may not exceed 4 months. The Exhibitions Committee, presided by the Prefect and made up of the heads of the relevant offices, meets four times each year to evaluate and approve the received requests. It gives special consideration to projects whose themes coincide with the interests of the Library, which has a long tradition of promoting cultural events of great artistic or religious value.

The Library participates in no more than 12 projects each year, and only loans a very limited number of objects for each one. In addition, a period of three years must pass before a given object may be loaned again. In addition to these criteria, the Library always reserves the right to refuse a request due to the exceptional age, rarity, value or frailty of an object, or to preserve it from the risks and strains involved in repeated transportation and exposition. The Regulations for Exhibition Loans clearly explain the terms and requirements under which the Vatican Library loans its objects; it should be read carefully by the borrower, signed, dated and stamped by the person responsible for the institution which is to host the exhibition, and returned to the Vatican Library. The management of loans requires a series of procedures and operations which follow a precise timeline; and all the required documents must be prepared in advance (description of the object, photographs, loan contract, insurance policy). All data regarding the subjects and the initiatives for the year are entered into a computer program which allows the Library to constantly monitor the activities of the Exhibitions Service, together with the progress and the deadlines of the procedures. These data are interfaced with those which concern each single work on loan, so that all the elements which are needed to reconstruct the history of the works, of their restorations and of their movements are always available.

The Exhibitions Service works in close collaboration with the curators of each exhibition, with the goal of coordinating the many operative aspects and the preparation of the necessary procedures and documents. Special attention is paid to security measures and to the environmental conditions required to guarantee the safeguard of the objects on loan. The organizers of the exhibition must take out a special insurance policy known as "nail to nail", with the Library as beneficiary, against "all risks", and is responsible for any damage done to the works during their absence from the Library.
The Exhibitions Service also aims to ensure that all necessary precautions are taken at both ends during the operations of delivery, packing, unpacking, inspection and setup of the exhibit, in order to maintain the state of conservation of the works even as they pass through "critical" environments, different from their normal conservation environment, during transport and during the time they spend in the host institution. In order to guarantee the application of all the conditions stipulated in the Regulations for Exhibition Loans, loaned works are always accompanied by a courier who is a staff member of the Library and who assists in unpacking, verifies the state of conservation of the works on loan and ensures that they are displayed in an appropriate manner in the host institution.

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS

CONTACT DETAILS

• PERSON IN CHARGE Dr. Maria Adalgisa Ottaviani: contact by email
• Telephone: +39/06698.79532
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