Vatican Library closure irks scholarsBummer.
By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
One of the world's oldest public libraries, the Vatican Library, has closed for rebuilding.
It is not expected to reopen before September 2010.
The reading rooms were unusually full last week.
Bespectacled university professors, graduate students from famous universities around the world, monks wearing brown and black habits, and Biblical researchers from more than 50 countries were sitting elbow-to-elbow at desks piled with documents and crowded with laptops and ancient manuscripts.
They were working desperately against time to complete their work before the closing down for the next three years of this powerhouse of academic research.
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UPDATE: But here's a backup resource:
Vatican Library in Rome Closes: Saint Louis University Becomes Hub for World's Leading Scholars
ST. LOUIS -- On Saturday, July 14, the Vatican Library in Rome is closing for a three-year renovation. The closure will make Saint Louis University's renowned Vatican Film Library even more important for the world's leading scholars and researchers.
The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, located in the University's Pius XII Memorial Library, holds microfilm copies of approximately 37,000 of the Vatican Library's 70,000 manuscript codices. Because of this extensive collection, officials from Rome are encouraging scholars to come to St. Louis during the renovation period.
Holding major portions of the Vatican's Greek, Latin and Western European vernacular collections as well as materials in Arabic, Ethiopic and Hebrew, the Vatican Film Library at Saint Louis University is one of the largest and most comprehensive libraries in the world for medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies. The Vatican Film Library also has microfilm of some of history's most important treasures, including early complete texts of the Bible and early works of Virgil.
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