The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-07-05
THE VATICAN LIBRARY
DR.. O'HAGAN WRITES INTER
ESTINGLY OF THE FAMOUS
TREASURE HOUSE OF HISTORY.

During brief sojourn in Rome GER
tainly one of the objective points of
interest is the celebrated Vatican
library Other libraries there are in
the world containing many more
volumes, such for instance as the
Bibliotheque Rationale of Paris, but
the value of the Vatican library lies
chiefly in it's rare books and precious
manuscripts
Because of this the scholar comes
here to do research work which he
can do in no other place. Indeed,
hundreds of great and valuable books
have been written that never could
have taken shape and form were it
not that their authors had the wealth
of the Vatican library at their hands.
1t was here that the great German
historian, Mommsen, did his research
work and here, too, DR.. Pastor, the
author of an admirable history of the
Popes during the Middle Ages, found
his data and weighed his facts. I
regret that though armed with let
ter of introduction I have not been
able to meet DIR. Pastor as he is at
present out of the city. When at
Innsbruck University few years ago
heard much of DR.. Pastor for it was
here he gained renown, first as lee
turer in history before the late Pope
Leo XIII summoned him to Rome and
gave him a place in the Vatican
library.
AS an instance of how the Vatican
library can witness to the truth of his
tory when all other Libraries fail
have only to cite the case of the set
Element of colonization of Greenland
by the Mortimer. The Vatican con-
tains the report of Catholicity in it's
life and progress in Greenland before
the colony became extinct This is
practically the only reliable source of
information on Greenland as nearly
all other documents have been lost
Among other books in manuscript
form that will interest the student
who visits the Vatican library is the
Defense of the Seven Sacramento, by
Henry VIII, King of England, with
the Kings signature and the same
Kings love letters to Anne Boleyn.
And just here l am reminded that
when was looking through the
library in VaIletta, Malta, l found the
original charter of Henry VIII con-
stituting himself on the 7th of July,
1888, the Protector of the Order of the
Knights of st. John and setting forth
the conditions for the entrance of the
Order in England. In 1910 Henry
confiscated the property of the Order
in England. A pretty poor royal pro-
tector when kingly looting was in
view.
Lovers of Virgil and Dante will
find in the Vatican in manuscript form
Virgil of the Second Century, and
the Divine Comedy with dedication
of Boccaccio to Petrarch. There is
also in manuscript form the Acts of
the Apostles written in gold in the
18th century, the gift of the Queen
of Cyprus to Pope Innocent VIII, a
celebrated Greek Codex of the 4th
century, an Illuminated Breviary of
Matthew Corvinus of Hungary, writ
ten in 1887, Tasso's poems, auto
graphed, Cicero's grafton on the Re
public, written in the 4th century, a
Pontifcal of Pope Boniface VIII, which
belongs to the 18th century, and a
letter of the Japanese King presented
to Pope Paul v in 1913.
Here in the Vatican library are seen
the many varied and rich gifts pre-
scented to the late Pope Leo XIII on
the occasion Of the golden jubilee of
his priesthood in 1887. I viii single
out one Of these for notice: The beau
tiful statue Of Our Lady of the Ro-
sary, the gift Of the diocese of Massa
and Carrara in Italy. It is the most
beautiful piece Of sculpture I'm Carrara
marble have ever seen.