The first part of 1,500,000 pages of ancient manuscripts is digitized.

The Vatican Library and the University of Oxford have posted online the first part of one and a half million pages of ancient manuscripts, which are planned to be digitized within three years. The collection consists of three parts: manuscripts of ancient Greece, Israel and printed books of the 15th century. These groups were selected based on their academic value and the number of documents in the library.

The Vatican Library and the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford announced a joint project to digitize artifacts in 2012. Now for the first time, a global audience has gained access to these unique documents. The $ 3.3 million project is funded by the Polonsky Foundation, which sponsors freedom of information programs.

“We want everyone to see manuscripts, these great works of humanity,” said the director of the Vatican Library in an interview with AP. “And we want to keep them.” Digitizing and publishing online means that the documents will remain forever: the physical destruction of the carrier is no longer terrible for them.
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Among the first documents online are Gutenberg's first bibles, an illustrated Greek Bible of the 11th century and a colorful German Bible of the 15th century, hand-painted and illustrated with wood engravings (a technique known as woodcut).

The Vatican library was founded in 1451 and today is considered one of the richest libraries in the world, where the most valuable documents are stored from the scientific point of view. It contains 180 thousand manuscripts, 1.6 million books and 150 thousand printed editions, drawings and prints. The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is the largest in England and holds more than 11 million printed works.

Similar programs for digitizing ancient documents are now running in libraries in different countries, including in China and Azerbaijan, the director of the Vatican Library said. Fortunately, these documents have long been transferred to the public domain, so that they can be freely published without fear of lawsuits from the copyright holders.

Some documents from the library

Gutenberg Bible (1455)
German Bible (1485)
Italian Bible (1490)
Greek Septuagint 9-10.
13th century Jewish Bible
Babylonian Talmud 13-14 century.
The Pentateuch 11-12.