VATICAN LIBRARY
Taday’s Vatican library, or Biblioteca Apostolica, was first developed under the guidance of Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455), a humanistic scholar partial to ancient Greek writers. During his early career as Tommaso Parentucelli, he had served Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) as librarian in the Monastery of San Marco in Florence, a collection that functioned as a public library from which items could be borrowed. He developed a systematic arrangement for the collection that was used in other Italian court libraries. During his brief papacy from 1447 to 1455, Nicholas V basically founded a new papal library. Organizing the Curia as a sort of academy, he welcomed Byzantine and Italian editors and translators, and he commissioned Lorenzo Valla to translate the Greek historians into Latin. The classical and patristic texts produced by the intellectual creativity at the papal library were those used by several printers and publishers during the latter 15th century. Borrowers of these manuscripts, including some of the expertly illuminated examples on vellum or parchment, included priests, scholars, and copyists. Subsequent popes added to the library’s literary wealth and continued to allow access to the collection.
FRENCH ROYAL LIBRARY
King Charles V (d. 1380) accumulated one of the greatest collections of manuscripts of any monarch in Europe. He also commissioned French translations of works in Latin. Writers such as Christine de Pisan were welcome to use his libraries, and the king himself spent time there reading his books. During their reign Charles VI (d. 1422) and Queen Isabeau permitted many items to be borrowed that were never returned. In 1424, most of the manuscripts in the royal library were shipped to England by the duke of Bedford, English regent of France. When Charles VIII (1470-98) invaded Italy in 1491, he in turn seized most of the humanistic library of Alfonso, king of Naples. These manuscripts included the texts of ancient Greek tragedies unknown to scholars in France. More Italian literary booty entered the French royal collection after Louis XII invaded Milan and took part of the Visconti-Sforza library back to France. When Francis I (1494-1547) ascended to the French throne in 1515, the royal library with all these manuscript treasures was located in the Chateau of Blois. Guillaume Bude (1468-1540), the first royal librarian, persuaded the king to move it to the court at Fontainebleau. During Francis I’s long reign, from 1515 until 1547, the royal library served not only scholars and writers, but also designers working to create new fonts and a new Renaissance style for books in Greek, Latin, and the vernacular.
AUSTRIAN IMPERIAL LIBRARY
The Austrian National Library in Vienna, or Hof-bibliothek, was organized by the Dutch humanist Hugo Blotius, beginning in 1575. Emperor Maximilian II (1527-76) owned more than 7,000 volumes that had been gathered together by the Holy Roman Emperors since the late 14th century. Unlike many other monarchs of the time, the emperor did not encourage outsiders to use these books and manuscripts. Blotius was determined to modernize the library and make it accessible for readers under specific rules, but apparently he did not succeed. Manuscripts were removed by the emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) to his court in Prague, never to be seen again in Vienna, and Blotius himself allowed individuals to borrow books that were never returned. Undaunted, he continued to permit readers to use the collection, stating, “A library that keeps its doors closed is like a candle inside a barrel, which burns but gives no light” (Staikos 2000, p. 440). He made numerous efforts to improve the collection, especially an attempt to acquire one copy of each book published under the Imperial franchise. The deposition in official libraries of books granted special publishing licenses, which commenced in the Renaissance, continues today.
Literature and Language
World History
