First edition. Text includes a brief history of the foundation of the Vatican Library, as well as short entries on each of over three hundred volumes selected for the exhibition. The books, arranged in chronological order according to their accession to the collection, tracks the development of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana during the five centuries between 1475 and 1975. Among the sixty-five color plates, some of the famous highlights from the collection of the Vatican Library, including the Vatican Vergil, the Life of the Countessa Mathilda of Canossa, the Evangelary of Lorsch, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen's Treatise on Falconry, and the Reichenau Evangelary, are illustrated.