Secret part of the library. What secrets are kept in the Vatican Library? Burnt Japanese soldier

Is there a place on Earth where a person can find answers to all his questions? Where is the knowledge of the ancient sages hidden? Where are the secrets of the universe kept? No matter how surprising it may be, there really is such a place and it is located in the city-state of the Vatican. We are talking about the famous Apostolic Library.

The Vatican Library is an amazing repository of human knowledge accumulated over thousands of years; no catalog of articles can compare with it. It amazes not only with the size of the architectural structure itself, but also with the large number of its collections. The library of the Roman Catholic Church currently houses a total of 150,000 important medieval manuscripts and archival volumes, as well as 1,600,000 printed publications and 8,300 early printed books. The Apostolic Library was founded in 1475 and has been regularly updated since then. In addition, it houses one of the largest collections of engravings in the world - more than 100,000 copies, 300,000 medals and coins, about 200,000 maps. Some ancient manuscripts are accessible only to the Pope. Open access to the library's collections for research work is guaranteed by the Lateran Agreements; formalities for visiting the collections are established by the Vatican. No more than 150 scientists and specialists can use the library’s collections every day. Therefore, exploring all the treasures of the Vatican Library seems almost impossible.

The library houses some of Leonard da Vinci's own works. They are secret because they contain secret knowledge that could undermine the authority of the Catholic Church. The building contains special secret rooms that only the “chosen ones” know about. Their exact location is unknown even to the clergy themselves. Perhaps in these rooms such mysterious manuscripts as books of the ancient Toltec Indians or, for example, copies of Calistro’s works, which contain the recipe for the elixir of youth, are hidden from prying eyes. The knowledge stored in them is quite likely capable of changing our understanding of the modern world.

Legend has it that the clergy are hiding the real Bible, written many centuries ago, in the Vatican Apostolic Library. And what is available for parishioners to read at home and in church is nothing more than a rewritten copy containing only part of the sacred truth.

One way or another, the Vatican Library safely stores its treasures. Unlike an ordinary library, there are no books here that can be examined outside its boundaries; the exclusive right to use manuscripts outside the walls of the archive belongs only to the Pope. For security purposes, each copy of the huge collection of books was equipped with special electronic chips that transmit a radio signal. They allow you to control the location of each manuscript. In addition, the modern Vatican Library has such methods of protecting its treasures as video surveillance, alarms and even fireproof walls.

The main wealth of a person is his knowledge, and this is well known to library employees who treat its collections with such reverence. Some works, unfortunately, are not available for wide use, but perhaps this is what protects us from those truths that we are not yet ready to perceive.

It is believed that the huge Vatican library, which appeared in the 15th century, stores almost all the sacred knowledge of mankind - they say, in it you can find answers to any questions, even about the origin of life on Earth. However, most of the books are very secret, and only the Pope has access to some scrolls.

The Vatican Library was officially founded on June 15, 1475, after the publication of the corresponding bull by Pope Sixtus IV. However, this does not entirely accurately reflect reality. By this time, the papal library already had a long and rich history. The Vatican housed a collection of ancient manuscripts, which was collected by the predecessors of Sixtus IV. They followed a tradition that appeared in the 4th century under Pope Damasus I and was continued by Pope Boniface VIII, who created the first complete catalog at that time, as well as by the real founder of the library, Pope Nicholas V, who declared it public and left behind more than one and a half thousand different manuscripts. Soon after its official establishment, the Vatican Library already contained more than three thousand original manuscripts purchased by papal nuncios in Europe.

The contents of a large number of works were immortalized for subsequent generations by many scribes. At that time, the collection contained not only theological works and sacred books, but also classical works of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, ancient Syrian and Arabic literature, philosophical treatises, works on history, jurisprudence, architecture, music and art.

Some researchers believe that the Vatican also contains part of the Library of Alexandria, created by Pharaoh Ptolemy Soter shortly before the beginning of our era and replenished on a universal scale. Egyptian officials took to the library all Greek parchments imported into the country: every ship that arrived in Alexandria, if it had literary works on it, had to either sell them to the library or provide them for copying. The library's keepers hurriedly copied every book they could get their hands on, and hundreds of slaves worked every day, copying and sorting thousands of scrolls. Ultimately, by the beginning of our era, the Library of Alexandria contained many thousands of manuscripts and was considered the largest book collection of the ancient world. The works of outstanding scientists and writers, books in dozens of different languages ​​were stored here. They said that there is not a single valuable literary work in the world, a copy of which would not be in the Alexandria Library. Is anything of her greatness preserved in the Vatican Library? History is still silent about this.

If you believe the official data, then the Vatican’s vaults now contain 70,000 manuscripts, 8,000 first-printed books, a million printed publications, more than 100,000 engravings, about 200,000 maps and documents, as well as many works of art that cannot be counted individually. The Vatican Library attracts like a magnet, but in order to reveal its secrets, you need to work with its funds, and this is not at all easy. Reader access to numerous archives is strictly limited. To work with most documents, you must make a special request, explaining the reason for your interest. And only a specialist can get into the Vatican Secret Archive, the closed collections of the library, and those whom the Vatican authorities consider trustworthy enough to work with unique documents. Although the library is officially considered open for scientific and research work, only 150 specialists and scientists can enter it every day. At this rate, it will take 1,250 years to study the treasures in the library, because the total length of the library’s shelves, consisting of 650 departments, is 85 kilometers.

There are known cases when attempts were made to steal ancient manuscripts, which, according to historians, are the property of all mankind. Thus, in 1996, an American professor and art historian was convicted of stealing several pages torn from a 14th-century manuscript by Francesco Petrarch. Today, about five thousand scholars receive access to the library every year, but only the Pope has the exclusive right to remove books from the library. In order to obtain the right to work in a library, you must have an impeccable reputation. And in general, the Vatican Library is one of the most protected objects in the world, because its protection is more serious than that of any nuclear power plant. In addition to numerous Swiss Guards, the library is protected by ultra-modern automatic systems that form several levels of protection.

Leonardo da Vinci and the secrets of the Aztecs

The heritage collected by the heads of the Roman Catholic Church was significantly expanded through acquisition, donation, or storage of entire libraries. This is how publications from a number of the largest European libraries came to the Vatican: Urbino, Palatine, Heidelberg and others. In addition, the library contains many archives that have not yet been studied. It also contains values ​​that can only be accessed theoretically. For example, some manuscripts of the famous Leonardo da Vinci, which are still not shown to the general public. Why? There is an assumption that they contain something that could undermine the prestige of the church.

A special mystery of the library is the mysterious books of the ancient Toltec Indians. All that is known about these books is that they actually exist. Everything else is rumors, legends and hypotheses. According to assumptions, they contain information about the missing Inca gold. It is also argued that they contain reliable information about the visits of aliens to our planet in ancient times.

Count Cagliostro and the “Elixir of Silence”

There is also a theory that the Vatican library contains a copy of one of Capiostro's works. There is a fragment of this text describing the process of rejuvenation or regeneration of the body: “After drinking this, a person loses consciousness and speech for three whole days.

Frequent cramps and convulsions occur, and profuse sweat appears on the body. Having recovered from this state, in which the person, however, does not feel any pain, on the thirty-sixth day he takes the third and last grain of the “red lion” (i.e., the elixir), after which he falls into a deep, peaceful sleep, during which a person’s skin peels off, teeth, hair and nails fall out, membranes come out of the intestines... All this grows back within a few days. On the morning of the fortieth day, he leaves the room a new person, feeling complete rejuvenation...”

Although this description sounds fantastic, it is amazingly accurate in repeating one little-known method of rejuvenation, “Kaya Kappa,” which has come down to us from Ancient India. This secret course to restore youth was completed 2 times by the Hindu Tapasviji, who lived to be 185 years old. The first time he rejuvenated himself using the Kaya Kappa method, reaching the age of 90 years. An interesting fact is that his miraculous transformation also took 40 days, and he slept through most of them. After forty days, new hair and teeth grew, and youth and vigor returned to his body. The parallel with the work of Count Cagliostro is quite obvious, so it is possible that the rumors about the rejuvenating elixir are real.

Has the veil been lifted?

In 2012, the Vatican Apostolic Library for the first time allowed some of its documents to be moved outside the holy state and put on public display in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. The gift that the Vatican gave to Rome and the whole world had very simple goals. “Above all, it is important to dispel the myths and destroy the legends that surround this great collection of human knowledge,” explained Gianni Venditti, archivist and curator of the exhibition with the symbolic title “Light in the Darkness.”

All documents presented were originals and covered a period of almost 1200 years, revealing pages of history never before available to the general public. At that exhibition, all the curious were able to see manuscripts, papal bulls, judicial opinions from trials of heretics, encrypted letters, personal correspondence of pontiffs and emperors... Some of the most interesting exhibits of the exhibition were the protocols of the trial of Galileo Galilei, the bull of excommunication of Martin Luther and a letter from Michelangelo about the progress of work on one of the seven pilgrimage basilicas of Rome - the church of San Pietro in Vincoli.

The smallest state in the world stores the largest collection of human knowledge - the Vatican Apostolic Library today contains about 1,600,000 printed books, 150,000 manuscripts, as well as engravings, maps, coins - all of this is of enormous, invaluable importance for world culture. Some part of the collection is hidden from anyone's eyes and kept out of reach. What do the Vatican archives hide?

Creating a Library

The first archives of the Vatican - in the form of scrolls, handwritten liturgical books - began to be collected in the 4th century, the library gradually grew, and by the fourteenth century it already contained 643 valuable manuscripts. The founding date of the modern Vatican Library is considered to be 1475, when the corresponding bull of Pope Sixtus IV was issued. At that time, the collection included 2527 works. In 1587, under the leadership of Pope Sixtus V, construction began on a separate building for the library.

Secret archive

At the beginning of the 17th century, a separate building was built to house the Secret Archives. Access to this part of the library was limited - it remains so at the present time; no visitors can be allowed to see a number of documents.

The total length of the document shelves is 85 kilometers. The archive contains documents of popes and their representatives, individual families, as well as the heritage of monasteries, orders, abbeys and many manuscripts of invaluable historical value.

The very existence of the secret archive has given rise to a lot of speculation about the artifacts that may be stored there. Allegedly, the walls of the library hide the first Bible, secret writings of the Freemasons, evidence of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. The writers' fantasies are attributed to the contents of the secret archive, both documents that refute church dogmas and those that confirm them.

About 150 scientists and specialists visit the library building every day, and before receiving permission to work with archives, they undergo the most thorough check. The Vatican Library is considered one of the most strictly protected sites in the world.

Declassification of archives

The documents exhibited to the public amaze the imagination, but even more exciting is the search for the answer to the question - what are closed archives hiding from the world?

The Vatican Library has preserved the wisdom of mankind for centuries and, obviously, will continue to preserve it.

And knowledgeable people also talk about. Access to the archives, which date back to 1611, has always been limited, and even today only Vatican officials and scholars are allowed inside.

It is believed that the huge Vatican library, which appeared in the 15th century, contains almost all the sacred knowledge of mankind. However, most of the books are very secret, and only the Pope has access to some scrolls.

The Vatican Library was officially founded on June 15, 1475, after the publication of the corresponding bull by Pope Sixtus IV. However, this does not entirely accurately reflect reality. By this time, the papal library already had a long and rich history. The Vatican housed a collection of ancient manuscripts, which was collected by the predecessors of Sixtus IV. They followed a tradition that appeared in the 4th century under Pope Damasus I and was continued by Pope Boniface VIII, who created the first complete catalog at that time, as well as by the real founder of the library, Pope Nicholas V, who declared it public and left behind more than one and a half thousand different manuscripts. Soon after its official establishment, the Vatican Library already contained more than three thousand original manuscripts purchased by papal nuncios in Europe.

The contents of a large number of works were immortalized for subsequent generations by many scribes. At that time, the collection contained not only theological works and sacred books, but also classical works of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, ancient Syrian and Arabic literature, philosophical treatises, works on history, jurisprudence, architecture, music and art.

Some researchers believe that the Vatican also contains part of the Library of Alexandria, created by Pharaoh Ptolemy Soter shortly before the beginning of our era and replenished on a universal scale. Egyptian officials took to the library all Greek parchments imported into the country: every ship that arrived in Alexandria, if it had literary works on it, had to either sell them to the library or provide them for copying. The library's keepers hurriedly copied every book they could get their hands on, and hundreds of slaves worked every day, copying and sorting thousands of scrolls. Ultimately, by the beginning of our era, the Library of Alexandria contained many thousands of manuscripts and was considered the largest book collection of the ancient world. The works of outstanding scientists and writers, books in dozens of different languages ​​were stored here. They said that there is not a single valuable literary work in the world, a copy of which would not be in the Alexandria Library. Is anything of her greatness preserved in the Vatican Library? History is still silent about this.

If you believe the official data, then the Vatican’s vaults now contain 70,000 manuscripts, 8,000 first-printed books, a million printed publications, more than 100,000 engravings, about 200,000 maps and documents, as well as many works of art that cannot be counted individually. The Vatican Library attracts like a magnet, but in order to reveal its secrets, you need to work with its funds, and this is not at all easy. Reader access to numerous archives is strictly limited. To work with most documents, you must make a special request, explaining the reason for your interest. And only a specialist can get into the Vatican Secret Archive, the closed collections of the library, and those whom the Vatican authorities consider trustworthy enough to work with unique documents. Although the library is officially considered open for scientific and research work, only 150 specialists and scientists can enter it every day. At this rate, it will take 1,250 years to study the treasures in the library, because the total length of the library’s shelves, consisting of 650 departments, is 85 kilometers.

There are known cases when attempts were made to steal ancient manuscripts, which, according to historians, are the property of all mankind. Thus, in 1996, an American professor and art historian was convicted of stealing several pages torn from a 14th-century manuscript by Francesco Petrarch. Today, about five thousand scholars receive access to the library every year, but only the Pope has the exclusive right to remove books from the library. In order to obtain the right to work in a library, you must have an impeccable reputation. And in general, the Vatican Library is one of the most protected objects in the world, because its protection is more serious than that of any nuclear power plant. In addition to numerous Swiss Guards, the library is protected by ultra-modern automatic systems that form several levels of protection.

Leonardo da Vinci and the secrets of the Aztecs

The heritage collected by the heads of the Roman Catholic Church was significantly expanded through acquisition, donation, or storage of entire libraries. This is how publications from a number of the largest European libraries came to the Vatican: Urbino, Palatine, Heidelberg and others. In addition, the library contains many archives that have not yet been studied. It also contains values ​​that can only be accessed theoretically. For example, some manuscripts of the famous Leonardo da Vinci, which are still not shown to the general public. Why? There is an assumption that they contain something that could undermine the prestige of the church.

A special mystery of the library is the mysterious books of the ancient Toltec Indians. All that is known about these books is that they actually exist. Everything else is rumors, legends and hypotheses. According to assumptions, they contain information about the missing Inca gold. It is also argued that they contain reliable information about the visits of aliens to our planet in ancient times.

Count Cagliostro and the “elixir of youth”

There is also a theory that the Vatican library contains a copy of one of Capiostro's works. There is a fragment of this text describing the process of rejuvenation or regeneration of the body: “After drinking this, a person loses consciousness and speech for three whole days.
Frequent cramps and convulsions occur, and profuse sweat appears on the body. Having recovered from this state, in which the person, however, does not feel any pain, on the thirty-sixth day he takes the third and last grain of the “red lion” (i.e., the elixir), after which he falls into a deep, peaceful sleep, during which a person’s skin peels off, teeth, hair and nails fall out, membranes come out of the intestines... All this grows back within a few days. On the morning of the fortieth day, he leaves the room a new person, feeling complete rejuvenation..."
Although this description sounds fantastic, it is amazingly accurate in repeating one little-known method of rejuvenation, “Kaya Kappa,” which has come down to us from Ancient India. This secret course to restore youth was completed 2 times by the Hindu Tapasviji, who lived to be 185 years old. The first time he rejuvenated himself using the Kaya Kappa method, reaching the age of 90 years. An interesting fact is that his miraculous transformation also took 40 days, and he slept through most of them. After forty days, new hair and teeth grew, and youth and vigor returned to his body. The parallel with the work of Count Cagliostro is quite obvious, so it is possible that the rumors about the rejuvenating elixir are real.

Has the veil been lifted?

In 2012, the Vatican Apostolic Library for the first time allowed some of its documents to be moved outside the holy state and put on public display in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. The gift that the Vatican gave to Rome and the whole world had very simple goals. “Above all, it is important to dispel the myths and destroy the legends that surround this great collection of human knowledge,” explained Gianni Venditti, archivist and curator of the exhibition with the symbolic title “Light in the Darkness.”

All documents presented were originals and covered a period of almost 1200 years, revealing pages of history never before available to the general public. At that exhibition, all the curious were able to see manuscripts, papal bulls, judicial opinions from trials of heretics, encrypted letters, personal correspondence of pontiffs and emperors... Some of the most interesting exhibits of the exhibition were the protocols of the trial of Galileo Galilei, the bull of excommunication of Martin Luther and a letter Michelangelo on the progress of work on one of the seven pilgrimage basilicas of Rome - the church of San Pietro in Vincoli.