14 DAY TRIAL // The Vatican and the Bodleian libraries are the keepers of some of the most important religious texts in the world, including ancient bibles, Hebrew manuscripts and some of the first ever printed books.
Thanks to funding from the Polonsky Foundation, the first results of a four-year project can finally be seen online – several books, including a Gutenberg Bible from 1455 can be seen online.
The website was just launched earlier today and it holds treasures that any book-lover will fawn over, religious or not. The Gutenberg Bible that got scanned and added to the site is one of only 50 surviving copies of the first major books printed in the west with metal type.
Of course, the 1455 Bible isn’t the only treasure stored on the site. The online archive includes the oldest Hebrew codex, as well as a copy of the entire Bible written in Italy back in the 1100’s.
The site also has a growing collection of scholarly essays, as well as interviews with the Oxford and Vatican librarians.
“Where you can see these ancient texts there is just a lifting of the spirits… I think those who did the printing in the past would think the scanning was a very considerable improvement, it must have been very hard work. Essentially the scanners of today and the printers of the past are engaged in very similar work,” said Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
The Vatican library was founded in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V, while the Bodleian one opened up a little later, in 1602, but it incorporated Duke Humfrey’s Library from 1488, as well as other older collections.
This is a great opportunity to see books that you wouldn’t otherwise get close to under regular circumstances, given their importance and age, so everyone should at least take a look at this online archive.
