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Who Was Pope Nicholas V?

This Rock Volume 16, Number 4   April 2005     Frontispiece By Karl Keating   Letters   What Is Biblical Criticism—and Should We Trust It? By Fr. Peter Funk, O.S.B.   Questions Biblical Criticism Strives to Answer   Using the Four Senses of Scripture to Interpret the Exodus   What Is the Documentary Hypothesis?   Do You Have a Vocation? By Russell Shaw   That Rock By John Pacheco   Evangelizing Your Library By Nancy Carpentier Brown   Shhhh! Insider Tips   Does Your Library Have These?   Who Was Nicholas V?   Step by Step Does Christ’s Church Have Apostolic Succession? By Kenneth J. Howell   Fathers Know Best Peter’s Successors   Brass Tacks Why I Am Not Eastern Orthodox By Jimmy Akin   Damascus Road An Islamic Story By Aghi Clovis with Joanna Bogle   Reviews   Quick Questions    Subscribe    Permissions

Born Tommaso Parentucelli in 1397, Pope Nicholas V was a passionate bibliophile. It was this passion for books that led to the development of the Vatican library, the crown jewel of all libraries.

Pope Nicholas V was elected to the Chair of Peter in 1447 and quickly expanded the Vatican collection of books from 350 to 1,500 by adding his personal collection to the Church’s. He employed translators to turn Greek texts into Latin. He also collected books from monasteries and palaces throughout Europe, rescuing manuscripts from book lice, moths, and sometimes the furnace. He eventually added between 5,000 and 9,000 books to the Vatican library, depending on which source is read.

The founding of the Vatican library is perhaps Pope Nicholas’s greatest accomplishment, as he opened up a whole world of literature to the public. His pontificate was only eight short years, yet he accomplished much. He rebuilt Roman fortifications, fixed the aqueducts, repaired St. Peter’s and the Vatican buildings, and forced out an anti-pope. He declared a Jubilee Year in 1450. He was crushed by the news of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which Nicholas saw as a great blow to Christendom. He died in 1455 and is most remembered today as the father of the Vatican library.

The Vatican library has continued to grow through the ages. During the Renaissance it played a key role in reviving classical culture. Its librarians were often distinguished scholars. The Vatican library today is a research library, and most of its books and manuscripts are in Greek or Latin.