Rare works from the Pontifical Oriental Institute Library will soon be available in digital format!

Newsroom (05/01/2022 08:15 AM, Gaudium Press): Thanks to a German copier and two American technology companies, a large number of rare Vatican books have been digitized and will soon be available to the public.

The library of the Pontifical Oriental Institute was born when, in 1923, Cardinal Eugenio Tisserant traveled to the Middle East in search of works that could compose a library. His assistant, Father Cyrille Korolevskij, left for Romania, Transylvania, Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania with the same objective.

After a year’s journey, the prelate returned to Rome with 2,700 volumes. Thus was created the library of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, a graduate school dedicated to the study of Eastern Christianity.

The inestimable value of the work

Currently, the Institute has 200 thousand books that are being digitized. In mid 2022, the first works will be made available to the general public.

Father David Nazar, rector of the institute, explained that companies soon understood the value and importance of the project.

Several books were at risk because they come from conflict zones such as Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Other books were in territories of authoritarian censorship, and therefore equally at risk.

Father Nazar explained that thanks to the Institute scholars from the Middle East or other parts of the world can have access to works that have been saved from destruction.

Although many of the works are not of great interest to the general public, they are of great importance to scholars.

Among some of the titles in the library are the 19th century collection of Eastern Orthodox canons (Syntagma tôn theiôn kai hierôn kanonôn) or the first Greek edition of John Chrysostom’s liturgies from the 16th century.

The Companies Involved

An American blockchain technology company, ShelterZoom, will underwrite the digitization and ensure that the works remain the property of the Institute.

The company’s chief executive Chao Cheng-Shorland, who visited the library last year, was amazed by the project: “It’s (a project) unique, not only in the technology sense, but also in the sense of contributing to such a wonderful piece of history,” she said in an interview with the New York Times.

Another American company, Seery Systems Group, has been scanning the documents using technology from a German company, SMA.

Fabio Tassone, the library’s director, explained that priority for digitization was given to the most requested works, especially those on the Eastern liturgy or the early writers of the Eastern churches.

The magazines published by the Institute itself were also a priority, because they contain excerpts, translations, and scientific analyses of other works.

So far 500 volumes have been digitized and those responsible intend to continue the process in the future. (FM)

With information from NYT.
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier