Vatican Apostolic Library 2026 Official Daily Planner Limited and Collectors' Edition

Vatican Apostolic Library 2026 Official Daily Planner Limited and Collectors' Edition

Introduction by Msgr. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church:

The subtle, meticulous treatise by the highly cultured publisher and bibliophile Gaetano Volpi, Del furore d'aver libri (1756), inspires the 2026 Agenda of the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The book, erudite and alluring, reviews the formidable enemies of books: water, fire, insects... With the keen eye of a scholar, the savoir-faire of a zealous librarian and the obsessions of a jealous lover, Volpi transports the reader to the scene of a horror film, where even tiny parasites take on titanic dimensions, sustained by insatiable voracity. Everything becomes hyperbolic, including fear, and therefore also amusing and self-deprecating.

If talking about enemies triggers self-irony - a precious and rare commodity - the enemies themselves become gateways to unthinkable opportunities and unprecedented imaginations. 

This is why we asked a refined and dreamy artist like Beppe Giacobbe to accompany the days and months of this Diary. 

Dreams, in fact, intuit passages and favour syntheses that daytime logic and its stubborn analyses cannot afford. On closer inspection, a taste for the unexpected possibilities sparked by enemies is typical of every library, and of the Apostolic Library in particular. In fact, it even houses books that oppose and contrast with each other, encouraging a silent dialogue between them and guaranteeing the same care for all.

Volpi's terrifying, amusing and promising fears mark the beginning of a high-profile cultural journey, announced by this Agenda. Held annually for five years, the now traditional exhibition, a dialogue between contemporary artists and the priceless heritage of the Apostolic Library, will feature one of the enemies of books identified by Volpi. 
They will be viewed through his fearful eyes, yet with an inkling of an unspoken promise. 

The main character in 2026 will be water. It devastates entire book deposits. Yet without water, there is neither paper nor ink. The very thing that threatens a library allows it to exist. It is the curious mystery of the enemy. Perhaps this is why Christ asks us to love him. Who knows how many surprises he has in store."