Notes and Comments

Vatican Press and Library and Association of Researchers

Monsignor Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Vatican Library, has announced a plan to digitize 80,000 manuscripts of the library. These 40 million pages will be reproduced as forty-five petabytes (that is, 45 million billion bytes). Variously written and illustrated or annotated pages will be photographed with the highest definition to include the greatest amount of data and to avoid having to repeat the immense undertaking in the future.

Over the past two years, internal, external, and international experts participated in a technical feasibility study, considering issues such as quality of photography, the electronic formats most appropriate for conservation, the stability of photographs over time, and the maintenance and management of the archives. The project is envisioned to last ten years, divided into three phases, with possible intervals between the phases. In a preliminary phase the involvement of sixty people is planned, including photographers and conservator-verifiers; in the second and third phases, at least 120 individuals will be involved. However, significant funds will be needed to support this undertaking; some progress has been made in this direction.

On March 25, 2010, the Holy See Press Office announced the online publication of the official acts of the Holy See and of a collection of documents from the World War II period. The entire collections of the Acta Sanctae Sedis (A.S.S.) and of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (A.A.S.)—i.e., the official Acts of the Holy See from 1865 to 2007—are available in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format, as is the twelve-volume collection of the Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, published by order of Pope Paul VI starting in 1965 and edited by a specialized group of four Jesuit historians. To view these documents, visit the “Resource Library” section at http://www.vatican.va .

The Associazione dei Ricercatori dell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano, which currently includes 134 members from twenty-five countries, has established a Web site to facilitate networking among researchers who use the fondi of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano and other Roman archives. The Web site, https://sites.google.com/site/ricercatoriasv/Home , provides various services such as a calendar of events, relevant materials from recent publications, offers and proposals of work, a discussion forum, and a brief presentation by some of the researchers. Those who wish to join the Associazione need to visit the Web site and fill out an application form; membership is free.

Exhibitions

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, the exhibition “The Visitation Order at 400 Years” is now on view at Ryan Memorial Library at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. A collaborative undertaking by St. Joseph’s University Press and Ryan Memorial Library, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, stained glass, engravings, rare books, devotional objects, and paraments painted and embroidered by the Mexican sisters of the Philadelphia Visitation monastery. Continuing through August 9, 2010, the exhibition focuses on four major themes: (1) the biblical mystery of the Visitation, which considers St. Francis de Sales’s rich insights into this event in salvation history that shed light on the spirit that he wished to establish in the Visitation Order; (2) the two founders of the Visitation Order and the Salesian tradition, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal, with particular attention to their emblematic exaltation—an approach that was much in vogue in the seventeenth century; (3) devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is synonymous with the Visitation Order; and (4) Our Lady of Guadalupe, which recalls the Mexican roots of the Philadelphia Visitation. Art objects exhibited come from private as well as institutional collections such as St. Joseph’s University, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Georgetown University, the U.S. Provinces of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and the Philadelphia Visitation. A printed gallery guide to the exhibition is available. For hours of operation, contact the library at 610-785-6274; for further information and/or to arrange for a group tour and gallery talk, contact the exhibition’s...