Vatican Library To Be Closed for Renovations
I just learned that the Vatican Library will be closed until 2010 for much-needed renovations. This article from BBC News describes how scholars are scrambling to finish their research before the Vatican Reading Room closes. The article states also that scholars can still obtain microfilm copies of manuscripts during the renovations. Good news as I have a standing order for five microfilms (the Vatican have never been very quick filling orders, mind you, so I still may have to wait until 2010 for my material).
But there is another option. According to an article in the International Herald Tribune, St. Louis University has copies of “nearly half of the medieval and Renaissance manuscripts” from the Vatican archives. The University has been stockpiling the material (on microfilm) since the 1950s; the collection even includes a copy of the Codex Vaticanus. I wonder: perhaps a microfilm order from SLU would arrive far quicker than from the Vatican.