THE VATICAN COLLECTIONS. 
The public library collections of the Vatican are three; the archives, the 
library, and the library of consultation. The entrance of the first is from 
the Vialone di Belvedere. Students are permitted to reach this through the 
Porta di Bronzo and various stairs and courts, thus avoiding the circuit of 
St. Peter’s necessary to the sightseer. Through a small hall one enters the 
room for the study of bound volumes of manuscripts, which is rather shabby, 
but well lighted, conveniently arranged, and slightly heated in winter. To 
the left of the farther end, a few stairs descend to the room for the study of 
unbound manuscripts, which runs parallel with the first, getting its light from 
an interior court. To the right of the steps, a door opens on a small hallway, 
to the left of which is the office of the director, in which are kept the inven¬ 
tories. To the right, one enters a suite of three rooms, of which the last is 
divided by stacks into three. In these, most of the shelves are open and the 
volumes may be freely used. There are also a few study tables. To the left 
of the second room of this suite, a few steps descend to the Biblioteca di 
Consultazione or Leonina. This is administratively connected with the Bib¬ 
lioteca Vaticana, rather than with the Archivio. The rooms are charmingly 
decorated and well lighted, on the one side from the larger Cortile di Belve¬ 
dere, on the other from an interior court. 1 They consist of the room joining 
the Archivio, and two parallel connecting rooms, at the end of which is a fourth 
similar to that first entered. From the further end of the left-hand parallel 
room, to the left, is a stair leading up to the cloak room of the Biblioteca. 
From this, one enters to the left the small, well-ordered, unventilated study 
room, while diagonally opposite is a door opening into the Galleria Lapidaria, 
from which students may descend to the Cortile di S. Damaso, and thence 
by the Scala Pia to the Porta di Bronzo, which route serves also for the en¬ 
trance of those who come to the Biblioteca rather than the Archivio. 
Permission to use these collections is freely granted to all who bring evi¬ 
dence of intention and capacity for serious study. A letter to Father Ehrle, 
sub-prefect of the Biblioteca Vaticana, is desirable; and in the case of women, 
special arrangements must be made. 
The open hours in the archives are from 8:30 to 12, in the libraries from 
8 to 1. The collections are closed on Sundays and Thursdays, on the cus¬ 
tomary ecclesiastical holidays, on St. Peter’s day, January 18; at Christ¬ 
mas, from December 24 to January 1, inclusive; at Easter, the archives are 
closed from the Saturday before Palm Sunday to the Wednesday after Easter, 
inclusive; the libraries from the Wednesday before Easter to the Sunday 
after it, inclusive; both are closed the Saturday before and the Monday and 
Tuesday after Whitsunday, and both remain closed from the last Saturday 
in June to the first day in October not a Sunday or Thursday. 2 The rules 
are simple. One using the archives has a seat assigned which he occupies 
throughout the year. He is expected to register every morning, stating the 
volumes he expects to use. He then fills out a prepared slip, giving his name, 
address, the number of his seat and precise indications of the volumes de- 
1 Antonio Sacco, Le Nuove Sale della Biblioteca Leonina in Vaticano (Rome, 1893, 
PP- 22). 
“Also occasionally for special occasions, as unusual anniversaries, feasts, and deaths. 
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