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                                  VIS-Press releases   
      
   VATICAN APOSTOLIC LIBRARY: A HISTORY OPEN TO THE FUTURE   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 9 NOV 2010 (VIS) - At 11.30 a.m. today a press conference was   
   held in the Holy See Press Office to present an exhibition entitled "Knowing   
   the Vatican Library. A History Open to the Future". The exhibition is to be   
   held in the Charlemagne Wing off St. Peter's Square from 11 November 2010 to 31   
   January 2011.   
      
   Participating in today's presentation were Cardinal Raffaele Farina S.D.B.,   
   archivist and librarian of Holy Roman Church; Msgr. Cesare Pasini and Ambrogio   
   Maria Piazzoni, respectively prefect and vice prefect of the Vatican Apostolic   
   Library; Barbara Jatta, the organiser of the exhibition, and Fr. Cesare Atuire,   
   director general of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.   
      
   "The exhibition", Cardinal Farina explained, "aims to make the Vatican Library   
   known to people who do not have the privilege of frequenting it. But it also   
   seeks to make the broad range of its academic, cultural and artistic treasures   
   better known to its regular users. ... Above all it wishes to expose people to   
   the daily activities that take place outside the reading rooms. ... One part of   
   the Vatican Library, the historical part, can be admired on the itinerary of   
   the Vatican Museums, but that its not the living part. This exhibition, thanks   
   to a number of stands manned by library staff, brings, if only in part, a   
   breath of the life of this daily activity and represents the true novelty of   
   this exhibition with respect to earlier ones".   
      
   "Yet something will still be missing from this arrangement: the readers", said   
   the cardinal. "To compensate for this failing, the exhibition will welcome   
   visitors in a virtual reconstruction ... and groups of pilgrims and school   
   children touring St. Peter's Basilica will also be able to visit the   
   exhibition. It is an exalted cultural undertaking which makes up for the   
   impossibility of accommodating visitors in the limited physical confines of the   
   Vatican Library and gives people who appreciate the treasures of culture and   
   beauty the opportunity to know and marvel at our institution [which houses the]   
   patrimony of humanity and the roots of our civilisation and our faith".   
      
   For her part Barbara Jatta explained how the organisation of the exhibition   
   will be "traditional, but at the same time modern and communicative. ... Along   
   with the traditional sections (seven in number: history, manuscripts, prints,   
   designs, coins and medals, other services, and the workshops) a multimedia   
   itinerary has also been created, using videos and computers to give people an   
   understanding of the institution. This was a deliberate choice to underline how   
   technology and innovation have been a priority of the Vatican Library for   
   decades".   
      
   "Noteworthy aspects - apart from extraordinary manuscripts, incunabula, ...   
   medals, etc. - include the recreation of the Library's Sistine Hall, the great   
   sixteenth-century frescoed area created by order of Pope Sixtus V, the   
   decoration of which focuses on the history of alphabets, the libraries of   
   antiquity, and Church Councils associated with the theme of books".   
      
   The exhibition also includes recreations of the restoration and photographic   
   workshops. "The restorers will work on the restoration of ancient codices,   
   stitching bindings and restoring designs and prints in front of the public",   
   said Ms Jatta.   
      
   Msgr. Pasini announced that from 11 to 13 November, to coincide with the   
   inauguration of the exhibition, "a conference will be held to analyse the   
   period of the last sixty years, both in terms of the studies undertaken in the   
   Library and its contacts with external institutions, and the life and   
   activities of the Library and the experience it has acquired in its various   
   departments".   
   OP/VIS 20101109 (600)   
      
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    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)