NFTs
Vatican Library to Grant NFTs to Donors in ‘Experimental Project’
Per Hannah Brockhaus
Roma Newsroom, June 17, 2024 / 11:00 am
The Vatican library announced Monday that it will expand its use of Web3 technologies by granting non-transferable NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to backers of its manuscript collections.
For now, the project, considered “experimental,” applies only to Italian donors to the Vatican Apostolic Library. A trial was first launched in Japan in February 2023.
According to the library, which preserves around 180,000 manuscripts and more than 1.5 million printed books, Italians who share about the NFT project on their social media accounts by July 16 will receive a “silver NFT,” through which they will be able to access a special collection of high-resolution images of 15 manuscripts from the library.
Financial backers of the project will instead receive a “Gold NFT,” giving them access to high-resolution images of all 21 manuscripts in the special collection.
The Vatican has partnered with Japanese multinational NTT DATA to expand “the Vatican Library’s online community by connecting the cultural institution with its supporters through Web3 technology,” according to a June 17 Vatican Library press release.
The future of the project, the Vatican said, could include the ability to visit the library through immersive extended reality (XR) experiences, such as augmented or virtual reality.
“I believe that our heritage requires special attention and dedication aimed at preservation and promotion,” Salesian Father Mauro Mantovani, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, said this week.
“NTT DATA,” he continued, “has played an important role in supporting the Vatican Library’s mission of making its unique collections accessible to the public, regardless of origin, culture, religion, politics or ideology, while stimulating scientific research and development.”
The papal library, in its present form, dates from the 14th century, although there is evidence that the Catholic Church has had a library and archive since the 4th century.
The Web3 project continues the papal library’s efforts to make ancient documents more accessible to the public.
The Vatican launched a new website for the library in 2020 with improved search functions and easier access to digital reproductions of digitized manuscripts, inventories, archival materials, coins, medals and incunabula, which are books printed in Europe before the 16th century.
According to its website, the Vatican Library “preserves more than 180,000 manuscripts (including archival units), 1,600,000 printed books, about 9,000 incunabula, more than 300,000 coins and medals, more than 150,000 engravings, thousands of drawings and prints, and more than 200,000 photographs.”
The Apostolic Library is located in Vatican City, in a building dating from the late 16th century.
Hannah Brockhaus is a senior correspondent for the Catholic News Agency in Rome. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and holds a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.