A rare look at the Vatican Library's treasures

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We are about to visit a place few people have seen firsthand: the Vatican Library, a vast collection of historic treasures beyond compare. It was founded over five centuries ago, when Europe was coming out of the Dark Ages. It was a period of so-called humanism when the Catholic church was open to new ideas in philosophy, science and the human spirit.

It's the pope's library, but it contains much more than just church documents. There are manuscripts going back nearly 2,000 years on music and math, warfare and exploration - even cookbooks and love letters. The library is closed to the public, as it is a place for scholars only.

Photos: Inside the Vatican Library

But the Vatican agreed to let "60 Minutes" and correspondent Morley Safer in to see some of the priceless artifacts of our collective past.

In Rome, turn a corner and you bump into antiquity - we arrived at the Vatican to find a medieval costume parade in progress. What better way to begin a trek through history.

"There's about two million printed books," library curator Timothy Janz told Safer.

And inside the library, the past surrounded us again, as we were shown the magnificent building and its riches.

Extra: What would you save?
Extra: A tour of the Salone Sistino
Extra: Why it's closed to the public

For instance: the spectacular Bible commissioned in 1476 by the Duke of Urbino. Janz tells us the Bible took years to make by hand: letter by letter, picture by picture.

"Decorated with real gold," he pointed out, while showing Safer the magnificently ornate pages.

It's just one of the library's 80,000 handwritten manuscripts from the ages before the printing press. Add to that two million or so printed books, Christian and pagan, sacred and profane, in virtually every language known to man. There are thousands of prints and drawings

They are windows on the past.

And there's a huge collection of ancient coins, including the money used in Palestine 2,000 years ago. There are the kind of silver coins Judas was said to have been paid to betray Christ.

There is a map of the world, drawn 50 years before Columbus: at its edge, the Towers of Paradise are depicted. And the library holds an immediate best seller - Columbus' description of his voyage to the new world, published in 1493.

"In a certain way, the library is kind of the attic of Western civilization," Safer noted.

"It's so true. And it's like many attics, you know? You put things up all the time. You keep on pushing over boxes to make space for more things," Father Michael Collins, an Irish priest who has written extensively about the Vatican, told Safer.

If you would put the library's shelves end to end, they would stretch for 31 miles.

"Is there anyone, any single person who really knows what the library holds?" Safer asked.

"Nobody knows exactly what's there. Because it will be impossible for the human brain, I think, to understand, to remember the titles, who wrote it, when they were written," Father Collins said.

"It is quite a treasure of humanity that you have here," Monsignor Cesare Pasini, who presides over the library, told Safer.

Produced by David Browning

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by Aldennugent April 20, 2011 1:39 PM EDT: What is going on with Andy Rooney, why is he no longer on the Sunday program?; Reply to this comment


by hross1110 April 11, 2011 9:19 PM EDT: The Vatican Archives Website is below for anyone interested:

http://asv.vatican.va/en/visit/p_nob/p_nob.htm; Reply to this comment


by tubaska April 11, 2011 6:51 PM EDT: 4midnight,
i used to be there.......i think you see thru catholic glasses.; Reply to this comment


by tubaska April 11, 2011 6:46 PM EDT: 4midnight,
we are from 2 different catholic churches.
apparently, we both believe what we believe.
i found no truth in the catholic church, just self serving humans.
i am at peace with what god has created and what god is.; Reply to this comment


by silvereagle2718 April 11, 2011 6:38 PM EDT: seems the sort of treasure that should be on the web. for once, i have reason to envy the pope and those who might be able to comprehend such documents.; Reply to this comment

by netjunkie1 April 11, 2011 3:18 PM EDT

Good presentation.
However, the Vatican has a long history of oppressing thought, opinion, and policy.
The priests that came with the conquista destroyed many cultures and created many half breeds with class struggles that is promenent in Latin America along with forced baptisms of Jews in Spain. They destroyed the ancient history of the Maya with mass burnings.
They took the gold, conquered, raped and baptized....in Jesus's name...I think not.
And then the diseases they brought along with the rats, destroyed the Aztec civilization.

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by skithebumps April 11, 2011 3:39 PM EDT: netjunkie1 - Yeah, so what's your point?


by netjunkie1 April 11, 2011 4:12 PM EDT: My point is they intentionally preserve items that shed catholic dogma to be absolute while a history prevaded that shows that they destroyed all others...early christians for example, books like the Gospels of Peter, Judas and Mary...were destroyed by decree.


by Overruled1 April 16, 2011 8:11 AM EDT: The early christians were given the order to stop following the books you claim to be heracy, but the fact is the bible was made up of a collection of books that were accepted to be truthful of Christ and his followers. They were only called heretical after the bible was edited by Constantine for his political use as leader of the Roman Empire.
The christians were ordered to destroy the unappoved books and follow the new approved book or else face the penalty of death.
The decree was called something in latin that means something like "cease your beliefs and heracy" and told to follow the bible as edited.

by margolan April 11, 2011 10:54 AM EDT

Librarians, curators, and preservationists alike drew a horrified gasp. Why would a national news organization and the Vatican library show rare documents being handled? Many of us have spent years trying to educate our patrons about the damage oil from the hands can do to documents. Shame on you. It is enough of a travesty that this wealth of information is not available to the world at large, but when we see on national television that those entrusted with its care and preservation can't even be bothered to don gloves, it makes me wonder what (if any)preservation/archive education they have and why they are even allowed near these treasures?

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by libraryjan51 April 11, 2011 1:56 PM EDT: "something" in the process of being restored needs to handled with gloves.


by netjunkie1 April 11, 2011 3:19 PM EDT: It's Italy.... isn't it?


by tubaska April 11, 2011 9:19 AM EDT: 4midnight,
there are many gospels.
only certain ones made it to the pulpit....not judas, or mary magdelanes.
..........and some were actually rewritten to suit the popes........
do some investigating. don't be afraid to learn. you won't go to hell.
elizabeth; Reply to this comment


by tubaska April 11, 2011 9:08 AM EDT: 4midnight,
you are free to believe what you want and understand god from your own experience, and not just take someone else's word about 'god'.
so are the rest of us...... WITHOUT THE THREAT OF ETERNAL DAMNATION.
i grew up as catholic as one could get without being a nun.
yes, we cried for the pagan babies and did painful things to offer to god for their damned souls.
damned only because someone didn't baptise them to the catholic faith.
yes, their was limbo............and purgatory............everyone would spend time there.......the fires of hell... but not forever.
the priests were treated like gods.............
the parishoners were their servants, hence the abuses.
that 'god made everything' was the first sentence i heard about god.
i saw trees, animals,the wind and sun...wonderful things!
it went radically downhill from there.........original sin, penance, mortal sins for eating meat on friday, verbal and physical abuses by nuns and priests..............not all........
a few knew what was going on was wrong but couldn't stand up to defend even themselves.
and then there's all that money, all those donations and collection plates............real estate, businesses, banks ,art, political deals, tax exemptions, legal deals, the libraries, 'all the treasures' and much more.
no one needs this church to honor god and follow jesus.
this is just another very human, self-serving, well established,group of power hungry humans.............
the priests were almost giddy about 'their' treasures.
it's the wolf posing as god's messenger.
nothing new about humans.
no wonder they've been hesitant to flaunt their possessions.
elizabeth; Reply to this comment

by MSatlow April 11, 2011 8:43 AM EDT

While for the most part I enjoyed your episode last night on the Vatican Library, I was disturbed that, unless I missed a fleeting reference, not once did you mention the Vatican's collection of Hebrew manuscripts. The Vatican Library has a vast collection of these manuscripts and has been forthcoming about making them available to scholars. At the same time, since much of this collection was originally acquired through compulsion and with the goals of missionary activity and censorship, they raise important issues concerning the historical relationship between Jews and Christians.

The episode also asserts that the collection contains about two million printed books "Christian and pagan, sacred and profane." This statement elides recent Vatican statements toward Jews and Judaism. I think that if asked today, most if not all Vatican officials would say that the Jewish manuscripts are both "Jewish" and "sacred." Your story thus misses an opportunity to at least mention the seismic shift that has occurred even in the last decade in the church's stance toward Judaism.

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by credibility2 April 11, 2011 12:23 PM EDT: ..perhaps that can be another story at another time, but that wasn't the focus..you seem to belittle the aspect of Catholicism and Christianity just because the story omitted a minor portion of Judaism related..sad and insecure...


by tubaska April 11, 2011 7:28 PM EDT: credibility2,
"just because the story omitted a minor portion of Judaism"
jesus was jewish...........that can't be minor.