Vatican Apostolic Library

EcclesiasticalVatican City

Vatican City, Vatican City. Founded 1475.

Overview

Formally established by Sixtus IV in 1475 on collections assembled by the popes since the 1440s, the Vatican Library safeguards 75,000 codices and 1.1 million printed books on 85 kilometers of shelving. Michelangelo and Galileo consulted its rooms, and its manuscripts include the fourth century Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest Bibles in existence. The DigiVatLib program is digitizing the collection for the world.

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