Vatican City, 14 February 2023, 05:50 (CNA).
Father Mauro Mantovani, a Salesian, has been chosen by Pope Francis to serve as the Vatican Apostolic Library’s new prefect.
The 57-year-old Italian priest follows Father Cesare Pasini, who held the position of prefect from 2007 until his recent 73rd birthday.
As prefect, Mantovani will assist Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, who was appointed to that position in September 2022, in managing the Vatican library.
Former Congregation for Catholic Education secretary Zani.
Thousands of manuscripts and more than a million printed books are preserved by the Vatican Library, the majority of which can be consulted by academics and researchers.
Mantovani is the rector of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. He has been a Salesian since 1986 and a priest since 1994.
He holds doctoral degrees in both Thomistic theology and philosophy and letters. Since 2007, he has held a position as a professor at the Pontifical Salesian University.
The priest is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and the agency for the evaluation and promotion of quality at ecclesiastical universities and faculties of the Holy See’s scientific committee (AVEPRO).
Although there is evidence that the Catholic Church has retained a library and archive from as early as the 4th century, the present version of the Vatican Apostolic Library is thought to have started in the 14th century.
The library and archive were made available to scholars for study in 1475 by a papal edict. Early in the 17th century, archival materials were legally taken out of the library and given to the Vatican Secret Archives (now called the Vatican Apostolic Archive).
The Vatican Library is said to hold more than 180,000 manuscripts (including archival units), 1,600,000 printed books, 9,000 incunabula, over 300,000 coins and medals, more than 150,000 prints, hundreds of drawings and engravings, and more than 200,000 pictures, according to its website.
In addition to providing open access to high-resolution digitized manuscripts, inventories, archival materials, coins, medals, and incunabula, which are books printed in Europe before the 16th century, the updated papal library website was presented in 2020.
The library’s home was constructed in the latter years of the 16th century.
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