Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0285Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of the interior of the Vatican library. Above the image "T422 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V16859T The Library of the Vatican, One of the 1000 Rooms in the Great Papal Palace, Rome, Itally." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted, Underwood & Underwood, Inc. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V16859
THE LIBRARY OF THE VATICAN, ROME, ITALY
It was Pope Sixtus who gave to Domenico Fontana the commission to construct the gorgeous repository for the most priceless of pritned books and manuscripts. The printed books are now said to number more than 100,000 and the manuscripits 24,000, some of which date back to the fifth century. they have been gathered from the ends of the earth, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Sweden and Germany, as well as from Greece and Italy.
But you might wander through this stately hall, divided into two aisles by the seven great fresconed pillars, examining its collection of beautiful Etruscan vases and delighting in its graceful and luminous frescoes, without ever seeing so much as a scrap of paper, for the precious manuscripts and volumes are kept in gilded and illuminated presses. The principal librarian is a cardinal. Permission to use the material in the library may be obtained on the recommendation of the ambassador from a traveler's home country or of some recognized institution of learning or research.
The hall is 220 feet long and about 50 feet wide. it is but one of the 1,000 rooms, halls and corridors which the palaces of the Vatican are said to contain.
The popes had a villa on the site of the Vatican before 500 A. D., but their official residence was the Lateran Palace until the papal government was transferred to Avignon. On the return of Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome in 1377 the Lateran was in ruins, and the Vatican became the papal residence.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection