“For the Common Convenience of the Learned”

Here’s news of an excellent joint project of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (founded in 1451 by Pope Nicholas V) and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library (which opened in 1602)  to put online a number of very ancient and rare religious and other texts housed in their respective libraries. These include the Bodleian’s 1455 Gutenberg Bible as well as the oldest Hebrew codex in existence and a copy of the Bible written in Italy circa 1100 (housed in the Vatican library).

The website where some of these documents may already be viewed is here.