The Vatican Apostolic Library specialises in philology and history, as well as the history of theology, jurisprudence and science. It is one of the most renowned research libraries in the world. There is evidence of the library, which served as the scrinium of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as library and archive, dating back to the fourth century.
The modern history of the Vatican Library began around the middle of the fifteenth century: Pope Nicholas V decided to release a body of works in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, a corpus that had grown to hold 1,200 documents during his reign, for consultation and inspection by scholars. Over the course of the centuries, the library was constantly expanded up to the present day. The library‘s holdings have grown to contain about 150,000 manuscript volumes, 1,500,000 printed books, 300,000 coins and medals and 100,000 maps and engravings.
