Essex Institute Historical Collections, Volume 10

When Nicholas died, he had increased the library to 1,200 manuscripts. When Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) housed the library in the Vatican Palace, it became known as the Palatine Library. Today the Vatican Library is open to scholars and academics who submit a letter of accreditation from a university or research institute. Its collection consists of about 1.6 million volumes, including some 75,000 manuscripts and 8,300 incunabula (printed books from the second half of the fifteenth century). БЂњThe Vatican Secret Archives have been estimated to contain fifty-two miles of shelving, and there are 35,000 volumes in the selective catalogue alone. БЂPublication of the indexes, in part or as a whole, is forbidden,БЂ™ according to the regulations current in 2005.БЂ«According to the Vatican website, the oldest surviving document dates back to the end of the eighth century. Movement of the material from one location to another, and political upheavals, nearly БЂњcaused the total loss of all the archival material preceding [the reign of] Pope Innocent III ...»