The Vatican Apostolic Library

The Vatican Apostolic Library has gathered since 1475 what may be the deepest manuscript treasury on earth - tens of thousands of codices from Virgil's oldest illustrated copies to Michelangelo's letters - serving accredited scholars in reading rooms whose entry ritual (letters, credentials, the hush) is academia's velvet gauntlet. The visiting public meets the collection sideways and well: through the Museums' route past the Sistine Hall of the old library - a frescoed vault built as the Renaissance's book-temple - and through periodic exhibitions that surface treasures under glass. For book people, even the sideways version is pilgrimage.

What you actually see

• The Sistine Hall - the frescoed library-temple on the Museums' route.
• The exhibition treasures - codices surfaced under glass.
• The scholars' threshold - the reading rooms' storied ritual.
• The 1475 continuity - the collection's unbroken keeping.

When to go

Year round via the Museums; exhibition windows are announced on the library's calendar - book-lovers should check before Rome dates.

Honest expectations

The working library admits credentials, not curiosity - the public offer is halls and exhibitions, which reward accordingly; expectations set there land happily.

Nearby

The Vatican Museums, the basilica and the gardens.