Collections

The research collections of the Vatican Film Library offer a wide selection of primary source manuscript materials in a variety of formats, ranging in date from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries. These collections center around the microfilmed manuscripts of the Vatican Library in Vatican City (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). The VFL holds copies of approximately three-quarters of its Greek, Latin, and Western European vernacular manuscripts, as well as a sizeable number of its Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Arabic manuscripts. Furthermore, in support of manuscript studies we maintain a comprehensive reference collection of manuscript catalogues, monographs, facsimile reproductions, and periodical literature. This includes a complete set of all the printed catalogues and handwritten inventories for Vatican Library manuscripts, as well as the printed catalogues for a great many other major manuscript collections.

USING OUR MICROFILM COLLECTIONS

HOW TO FIND OUR MANUSCRIPTS ON MICROFILM

 

Among our other resources are:

  • More than 2,400 non-Vatican Library manuscripts on microfilm SEARCH OUR DATABASE

  • The Manly-Rickert collection of eighty-five Chaucer manuscripts on microfilm ACCESS COMPLETE LIST IN LIBRARY CATALOG

  • Selected manuscripts from the medieval collection of the Lambeth Palace Library

  • Jesuit historical documents on microfilm READ MORE

  • A color slide collection of medieval and Renaissance illumination and decoration reproduced from a selection of Vatican Library manuscripts and from manuscripts in other major European collections

  • Over sixty full or partial printed facsimiles of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, many reproduced in their original dimensions and allowing scholars a more intimate experience with the object ACCESS COMPLETE LIST IN LIBRARY CATALOG

  • Digital image reproductions on CD-ROM of papal letter registers from the Vatican Archives (Archivio Segreto Vaticano) READ MORE

  • Photostatic copy of the Vatican Library card catalog describing some 7,000 manuscripts

  • A large number of incunabula and early-printed books on microfilm and microfiche, including:
 
  • The Vatican Library’s Biblioteca Cicognara on microfiche, containing some 4,800 early printed books from its collection on art and architecture

  • The printed books of the Vatican Library's Biblioteca Palatina on microfiche, containing approximately 12,000 titles

  • Numerous other rare and out-of-print books published in the past in the series called Manuscripta, Rare and Out-of-Print Books on Microfilm