The Vatican has teamed up with international IT service provider NTT DATA to take on the mammoth task of digitally archiving the thousands of books and documents held within the Vatican Library. The initial contract will see over three thousand manuscripts digitalised over the next four years and is one of the biggest initiatives of its kind in recent years.

NTT DATA were selected for the contract after their exemplary work digitalising Japan’s National Diet Library. The Vatican Library famously holds some of the most valuable religious and historic documents in the world and they have stressed the importance of having them all put online to preserve both their historic value and their value for future generations who otherwise may not get a chance to view the many manuscripts.

The Vatican’s vision for its library has been matched by the vision NTT DATA has expressed for digitalising rare and old documents for the public to see and so their partnership promises to release some of the greatest hidden literary treasures of Christianity and to make them widely available for the first time.

Using some of the very latest technology, NTT DATA will map out in high definition many of the illustrations contained in the library, such as the images seen above and below, and will enable much more freedom of information for those wishing to study the historic documents and pictures.

The contract, agreed upon in March 2014, is already under-way and many of the manuscripts can be found in the Vatican Apostolic Library’s digital archiving system online. We can expect to see many more hidden treasures released online in the coming years as NTT DATA and the Vatican continue to work together to find history a permanent spot in the online stratosphere.