Moving the Vatican Library – A Real Logistic & Security Challenge

As the Vatican Library holds irreplaceable pieces worth millions of dollars or even priceless ones, moving it is a real logistic and security challenge. Moving all books, papyrus, manuscripts, incisions, etc. and guaranteeing the safety of all buildings, security areas, bunker, etc.for the Vatican Library to allow the restoration is an ambitious project.

The unique moving project started at the beginning of 2005 and returned on site the last volume in March 2012.

The Vatican Apostolic Library, more commonly called simply the Vatican Library is currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts.

Today, the library holds some 75,000 manuscripts and over 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500 incunabula. The Vatican Secret Archives were separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century; they contain another 150,000 items. The Library shelves if you put them end to end will stretch for 31 miles (50 kilometers).

Among the most famous holdings of the library is the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, the oldest known nearly complete manuscript of the Bible.

It contains much more than just church documents. There are many scripts going back nearly two thousand years, and music, and math, and warfare, and exploration. Some interesting additions are the cook books and even 17 love letters, handwritten by the King of England – Henry the 8^th. There is a huge collection of ancient coins, including the kind of silver coins, Judas was said to have been paid to betray Christ. The Library holds a vast collection of historic treasures beyond compare. It contains books in every possible language, virtually known to men. There are thousands of prints and drawings, like a map of the world, drawn 50 years before Columbus.

The library’s most valued documents go back almost 2,000 years, nearly to the time of Saint Peter – the first pope – whose tomb lies beneath the basilica that bears his name.  His letters to the faithful make up two books of the New Testament. And there is a copy – written in Greek on papyrus by one of Peter’s disciples around the year 200, a mere century or so after his death. And from the same period: the gospel of Luke and part of the Gospel of John, also written on papyrus. Venerated by early Christians in Egypt, preserved for centuries in a desert monastery, they contain the oldest known copy of “The Lord’s Prayer”. That great treasure of papyrus is probably the most important treasure of Christianity.

The Vatican Secret Archives

The Vatican Secret Archives is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope, having primal incumbency until death or resignation, owns the archives until the next appointed Papal successor. The archives also contain the state papers, correspondence, papal account books, and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. The use of the word “secret” in the title “Vatican Secret Archives” does not denote the modern meaning of confidentiality, but its meaning is closer to that of the word “private”, indicating that the archives are the Pope’s personal property.

Qualified scholars from institutions of higher education pursuing scientific researches, with an adequate knowledge of archival research, could apply for an entry card to the Vatican Secret Archives. Scholars need an introductory letter by either a recognized institute of research or by a suitably qualified person in the field of historical research. Applicants need to specify their personal data (name, address etc.) as well as the purpose of their research. Undergraduate students are not admitted.

Moving the Vatican Library is a real challenge. That is why we contacted Mr. Righetti, whose company performed the unique relocation project, to tell us more about his experience with the move.

The Selection of the Mover in charge for moving the Vatican Library

M. Panayotov: Mr Righetti, we heard that you’ve done the responsible job of moving the Vatican library. Please tell us how your company got selected? Were there any requirements you had to cover in order to complete the job?

Being so old, my company is well known within the Vatican who we serve occasionally when there is a need of packing and shipping. I have never had a complaint during our work with the Vatican and, in particular, with their Library.

In recent past, I moved the venerable witness of the Gospels, known as the Bodmer Papyrus 14-15, from Switzerland to the Library. Those are original manuscripts on papyrus written in old Greek language. That was quite a thrilling commitment and our good Swiss colleague Messers Harsch from Geneva took a part, also Messers Benasso Lavarello from Lugano helped deal with the Customs and Fine Art operations. Darwin Airlines put one of their aircraft at disposal for that particular transportation via Bern, Lugano and Fiumicino airports. The moving process also involved identification of the manuscripts by the expert of Greek Scriptures Dr Sever J. Voicu, Scriptor Graecus at the Vatican Apostolic Library and Guest Professor at the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome. The manuscripts had never been left alone until we delivered them in the bunker of the Vatican Library and I had personally programmed all phases of the transportation, including loading on board the aircraft and securing the wooden cases on the cabin floor where two sets of seats had been removed on purpose to host them.

When the restoration and furbishing of the entire Library came to a start, we asked to participate in the bid. I can’t remember how many times, my son Marco, our expert of antique books Dr Matteo Minelli,  my chief packers and I visited the entire Library to monitor how did the work go and how we could manage to move all those miles of scaffolding while the Library had to be open for the studious and experts using the Library on a daily basis. My frequent inspections and inquiries made me aware of the fact that we couldn’t guarantee strict program, we had to be pliable to their continuous changes.

The focal point was the most delicate and valuable items in the treasury of the Vatican. All those millions of texts, many of which are more fragile than the most fragile glass, like the handwritten manuscripts using acid inks that were consuming the paper are preserved within those walls. I had to find the best possible way to pack, transport, and store them, because even a small shock or collision could destroy them forever. The Library demands and requirements were changing on a daily basis. When I left the Library in the afternoon to analyze the project and propose solutions, there would be a 60% chance the conditions would change during the night.

Once, I claimed that it would be impossible to arrange the move under those conditions and that the safest corridors and transits were excluded, leaving only the more risky routes available. I was also asked to use trolleys with square wheels but without making any noise! I had to accept all kind of conditions if I wanted to get that job, although it wasn’t easy to propose an economic budget for the several handicaps we had found and for the equipment that I had to project and build on purpose to meet all requirements.

In the end, I presented my project, including 12 experts competent to handle and restore antique books, to take care of delicate items, to arrange professional packing and to inventorize all the items to be moved. At the final meeting, I was asked to give a price. However, I explained that I couldn’t commit my company with a certain budget but they could end our agreement in case they considered price didn’t fit their requirements. At the end of the meeting, I was assigned by the Prefect, the Vice-Prefect and the Bursar of the Library. The following day, I gave my design of the equipment to my carpenters and smiths. Our box supplier was approached with the request of building boxes with seven different dimensions but all of the same high quality cardboard.

Moving the Vatican Library – Facts and Numbers

M. Panayotov: Tell us all about the Vatican move – how it all began, how much time did it take, what was the process step by step and what equipment did you use?

The project consisted of  two different phases. The first one was to move the most delicate and antique items out of the bunker, and the second one was to move out all the rest of the Library hosting the medal collections, the presents to the Popes, the letters to the Popes, new books on sale, stationery, photograph collections on paper, film and glasses, etc.

We had to wait almost a month to obtain a clearance from the Vatican Police for all our employees and workers engaged in the removal. We used that time to organize the move and to prepare all the ambient where we had to work and all the equipment that was necessary to safely perform the entire job. We obtained permission from the Vatican Governorship to position two new 20″ containers in the Library’s front court to accommodate the majority of our packing material, consumables and equipment. They built for us a provisional site where we could pallet the boxes that had to be stored outside the Vatican City, in their warehouses at Santa Maria di Galeria (near Rome).

All boxes containing manuscripts of the bunker had to remain in the Vatican and stored in the restricted area of the Vatican Secret Archives. The entire Library was recorded on high definition photographs, so we could have an exact identification of everything we were responsible for. Special labels were made and printed by us. Each box had a minimum of three labels, with a consecutive number printed on it. Separately, on a data base, we recorded all data per each box, including its exact content and its conditions at the time of packing. In order to prevent insects diffusion, all items with a evidence of infestations were taken apart and put under azote (Nitrogen) treatment. All was recorded in the database. Nobody could know the content of the boxes without consulting our supervisor Dr Matteo Minelli,  who was responsible for the entire work. The Prefect of the Library asked not to be that neurotic with the registration of all the items because everything had been inventorized by them recently, but it was one of my conditions to proceed that way. All boxes were studied to accept high stocking but weight was always well distributed by using plywood boards cut on purpose.

Securing the priceless pieces that had to be relocated

A deep study was conducted by myself with the assistance of my son Marco, Dr M. Minelli, and our chief executive Mr Piero Muscedere. All of us worked independently, making different reports with our own point of view and suggestions concerning all kind of packing materials, methods of packing, making inventory, structure of the packing list, time schedule, characteristics of personnel and their recruitment and training, all handling and transportation tools and means, special machinery for fastening, palletisation, waterproofing, safety, establishment of a technical area to transit boxes that had to be palleted before moving to the temporary warehouses, etc.

I coordinated the work of the four of us and ended elaborating the final project that included building twenty-four special scaffolding on wheels and mechanic suspensions, designed by me for the internal removal from the vault of the Vatican Library to the vault of the Vatican Secret Archive.

The most important part of the removal concerned the invaluable collection of papyrus, and manuscripts of all kind, sizes and ages, geographic maps, important drawings and projects of the greatest artists, architects, writers, etc. then photo negatives on glass and historical photos.

Many manuscripts had to be packed individually for their dimensions, or shapes, or fragility, and the most superior packing material was used to avoid humidity, temperature, shocks and acid alterations.

Just the packing and the moving out of the content of the vault took almost a year, from December 2007 through July 2008.

Although not requested, we made a database with all information regarding the content of each box and its location in the Vatican Archive. While the items were in storage, we were asked several times to find important manuscripts for photographic shots of certain pages, in a very short deadline. A couple of the requests came from the Pope as he wanted to present them to special guests. In all cases, the requested items were found in a few hours from the request.

The rest of the library, consisting of several funds donated to the Vatican during last centuries, collections of newspapers, encyclopedias, books of music, editions of the Vatican Library, collections of medals and their plaster casts, collection of letters and presents to the Popes, etc., including the return and set-up of all the items previously moved out of the Library, engaged us through March 2012 .

Mr. Righetti about his experience in the moving business

Not an easy task without a briefing on the company’s story. I’m the administrator of the moving company 1877 Stein srl. In the brand are included the year of establishment and the name of the founder, Mr Carl Stein who immigrated from Frankfurt on the Oder, Germany. Since then, the Company became a point of reference for reliable transportation and forwarding services, and the many Embassies that had opened in the newly celebrated capital of Italy, captured the interests of Mr Carl Stein who specialized also in domestic and international removals. Cars and trucks where still in the mind of inventors or unpractical therefore used household and personal effects were packed by the crews during the summer period and transported, by means of pantechnicons pulled by horses, to the warehouse that was nearer to the clients’ residences. Ten warehouses spread on several, strategic areas of the city were satisfying the need.

After summer, the crews would build waterproof wooden boxes to load the furniture inside. The big cases would then be transported to the port of Ripetta, a small port inside Rome, where barges took them to the bigger port of Fiumicino (25 miles west of Rome). Then, the boxes were transferred on small sailing boats that were serving the bigger port of Civitavecchia (40 miles north of Fiumicino and Rome). Larger sailing boats where took care of the transportation to the main port of Genoa, where the steamers took care of the trans-Mediterranean or trans-Atlantic crossing. A removal could take from six months to a year to reach the final destinations but there were no telephone, or fax, or telex, or cables, or Internet devices to inquire about a removal. In 1922 my father Aldo Righetti, just 18, did his first job with the company C. STEIN. With his good accounting diploma, as usual at those time, he was only allowed to do everything but not accounting. He had to understand the business first by following the crews, making inventories, taking care of the morning and evening mailing, etc. Little by little, he gained the confidence of the Stein family and, in 1945, he was named General Director with full power of attorney.

Immediately after the war, the company and my father gained the loyalty of the American Embassy and American community in Rome, growing a business that never neglected accuracy and trust. In 1964, the last owner of the company, Mrs Irene Stein, without inheritors, decided to leave the business by closing the company or by selling it to my father, she would have not left the name of the family in any other hand. My father Aldo accepted and in 1968, after my studies, I also entered into the company’s picture; starting from scratches and trying to assimilate, at the best of my capabilities, the notions and the behavior that my father was transmitting. In 1981, I bought the company from my father and in 2004 I transformed it from a privately owned company with a sole proprietor, to a society where my wife Enza and my son Marco hold the shares and I administer it with my capacities of licensed international forwarder and transporter.

How did the move influence the company and its practices

1877 Stein is a family company with a long tradition in international forwarding. Planning, projecting, accomplishing and fulfilling extraordinary requests isn’t our daily job but we often happen to be involved in exceptional and long term business. The good planning, job descriptions, constant supervision, upper quality in material and personnel, communication with Principal, their help, trust, understanding and last, but absolutely not least, God Providence, has helped us to achieve the target of our important Client without diminishing care and attention to all other habitual and new Clients who relied upon us.

Talking about the future

M. Panayotov: What are your future plans and challenges?

I’m relying on the good experience of my son Marco to take over the duty of administrating the company, approaching all consumers with the honesty and the solidity that has always distinguished our company during last 136 years and the many to come.

In December I’ll be 67 and I wish to pass this beautiful experience to my son who will remain in good hands with the assistance of Mrs Marie-France Gaudet and Mr Luigi La Licata who are the new generation of 1877 Stein. This should help my future plans and challenges to stay with my wife taking care of our nephew Davide and the others to come.

We want to thank Mr. Arnaldo Righetti from 1877 Stein for sharing his experience and his personal story with our readers.
This piece was published with the approval of the Vatican.

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Additional Sources:
Heading image source: Saint Louis University
Middle image source: The Vatican Library website
Prints Cabinet image source: The Vatican Library
Manuscripts of the Old and New Testament image source: Wikipedia
The Vatican Secret Archives source: Wikipedia