The project aims to digitize the entire Library’s collection of manuscripts: 80,000 codices (excluding the archival units) mostly from Middle Age and Humanistic period.
The project, started in 2010, focuses on two purposes: the long-term preservation of high resolution images and the online digital library.

In the light of the importance and the extent of this collection the answer to the basic question “What is to be digitized in priority?” is not so evident. Primarily, the strategic choice has focused on the digitization of ‘unique pieces’, from the collection of Manuscripts, but at the same time, the decision to digitize the manuscripts brought with it different and very important consequences firstly related to the preservation in order to avoid any damages of materials derived f

The implementation of DigiVatLib is based on open standards for metadata and APIs that allow the digital collections to be interoperable. We have adopted the International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF set of APIs making digital materials easily accessible and usable for scholars worldwide.

IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) has the following goals:

• To give s

The digitized manuscripts, selected for the Polonsky Project, are accessible through the DigiVatLib platform and include a full set of information pertaining to descriptive and structural metadata.

One of the main asset of the ‘Digital Vatican Library’ is the The Polonsky Project.

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Vatican Library have joined efforts in a landmark d