The most secret library

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It is believed that the huge Vatican library, which appeared in the 15th century, contains almost all the sacred knowledge of mankind. However, most of the books are very classified, and only the Pope has access to some scrolls.

The Vatican Library was officially founded on June 15, 1475, after the publication of the corresponding bull by Pope Sixtus IV. However, this does not accurately reflect reality. By this time, the papal library already had a long and rich history. The Vatican housed a collection of ancient manuscripts collected by the predecessors of Sixtus IV. They followed the tradition that appeared in the 4th century under Pope Damas I and continued by Pope Boniface VIII, who created the first complete catalog at that time, as well as the real founder of the library, Pope Nicholas V, who declared it public and left behind more than one and a half thousand different manuscripts. Soon after its official establishment, the Vatican library contained more than three thousand original manuscripts purchased by the papal nuncios in Europe.

The content of a large number of works perpetuated for subsequent generations many scribes. At that time, the collection contained not only theological works and sacred books, but also classical works of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, Old Syrian and Arabic literature, philosophical treatises, works on history, jurisprudence, architecture, music and art.

Some researchers believe that the Vatican also contains a part of the Alexandrian library, created by Pharaoh Ptolemy Soter shortly before the beginning of our era and replenished on a universal scale. Egyptian officials took to the library all Greek parchments imported into the country: every ship that arrived in Alexandria, if it had literary works on it, had to either sell them to the library, or provide them for copying. The library keepers hastily copied all the books that came to hand, hundreds of slaves worked daily, copying and sorting thousands of scrolls. Ultimately, by the beginning of our era, the Library of Alexandria consisted of many thousands of manuscripts and was considered the largest book collection of the ancient world. The works of prominent scientists and writers, books in dozens of different languages were kept here. It was said that there was not a single valuable literary work in the world without a copy of which could be found in the Library of Alexandria. Is there anything of her greatness preserved in the Vatican Library? History is still silent about this.

If you believe the official data, now in the Vatican's depositories there are 70,000 manuscripts, 8,000 early printed books, a million prints, more than 100,000 prints, about 200,000 maps and documents, as well as many works of art that cannot be counted by piece. The Vatican Library attracts like a magnet, but in order to reveal its secrets, you need to work with its funds, and this is not at all easy. Readers' access to numerous archives is strictly limited. To work with most documents, you must make a special request, explaining the reason for your interest. And only a specialist can get into the Vatican Secret Archives, closed library funds, and those whom the Vatican authorities consider reliable enough to work with unique documents. Although the library is officially considered open for scientific and research work, only 150 specialists and scientists can get into it every day. At this rate, the study of the treasures in the library will take 1250 years, because the total length of the library's shelves, consisting of 650 departments, is 85 kilometers.

There are cases when ancient manuscripts, which, according to historians, are the property of all mankind, tried to steal. So, in 1996, an American professor and art historian was convicted of stealing several pages torn from a 14th century manuscript by Francesco Petrarca. Today, about five thousand scientists receive access to the library annually, but only the Pope has the exclusive right to take books out of the library. In order to get the right to work in a library, you need to have an impeccable reputation. In general, the Vatican Library is one of the most protected objects in the world, because its protection is more serious than that of any nuclear power plant. In addition to numerous Swiss guards, the library's peace is guarded by state-of-the-art automatic systems that form several layers of protection.

Leonardo da Vinci and the secrets of the Aztecs

The legacy collected by the heads of the Roman Catholic Church was significantly replenished through the acquisition, donation or storage of entire libraries. Thus, the Vatican received publications from a number of the largest European libraries: "Urbino", "Palatine", "Heidelberg" and others. In addition, the library contains many archives that have not yet been studied. It also contains values that can only be accessed theoretically. For example, some of the manuscripts of the famous Leonardo da Vinci, which are still not shown to the general public. Why? There is speculation that they contain something that could undermine the prestige of the church.

A special mystery of the library is the mysterious books of the ancient Toltec Indians. All that is known about these books is that they really exist. Everything else is rumors, legends and hypotheses. According to assumptions, they contain information about the missing Inca gold. It is also argued that it is they that contain reliable information about the visits of aliens to our planet in ancient times.

Count Cagliostro and the "elixir of youth"

There is also a theory that the Vatican library contains a copy of one of Capiostro's works. There is a fragment of this text describing the process of rejuvenation or regeneration of the body: “Having drunk this, a person loses consciousness and speech for three whole days.

There are frequent convulsions, convulsions, profuse sweat appears on the body. Recovering from this state, in which a person, nevertheless, does not feel any pain, on the thirty-sixth day he takes the third, last grain of the "red lion" (ie elixir), after which he falls into a deep restful sleep, during which a person's skin peels off, teeth, hair and nails fall out, films come out of the intestines … All this grows again within several days. On the morning of the fortieth day, he leaves the room as a new person, feeling complete rejuvenation …"

Although this description sounds fantastic, it is amazingly accurate to repeat one little-known method of rejuvenation "Kaya Kappa", which has come down to us from ancient India. This secret course for the return of youth was taken twice by the Indian Tapaswiji, who lived for 185 years. The first time he rejuvenated using the "Kaya Kappa" method, reaching the age of 90 years. An interesting fact is that his miraculous transformation also took 40 days, and he slept most of them. After forty days, new hair and teeth grew, and youth and vigor returned to his body. The parallel with the labor of Count Cagliostro is quite obvious, so it is possible that rumors about the rejuvenating elixir are real.

Has the veil been lifted?

In 2012, the Vatican Apostolic Library for the first time allowed some of its documents to be moved outside the Holy State and displayed for all to see at the Capitoline Museum in Rome. The gift that the Vatican made to Rome and the whole world pursued very simple goals. “First of all, it is important to dispel the myths and destroy the legends that surround this great collection of human knowledge,” explained then Gianni Venditti, archivist and curator of the exhibition with the symbolic title “Light in the Dark”.

All documents presented were originals and covered a period of almost 1200 years, revealing pages of history never before available to the general public. At that exhibition, all the curious were able to see manuscripts, papal bulls, judgments from trials of heretics, encrypted letters, personal correspondence of pontiffs and emperors … Some of the most interesting exhibits of the exhibition were the minutes of the trial of Galileo Galilei, the bull about Martin Luther's excommunication from the church and a letter Michelangelo on the progress of work on one of the seven pilgrimage basilicas in Rome - the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli.