Is the Vatican Library public or private?

[teejayniles]

Vatican City -- actually that is a state/nation that is bordered on all sides by the Italian capital city (Rome)

The library holdings are administered by the "Vatican" and curia and the current Pope (Benedict XVI) is himself by background a professor and academic theologian. The wealth of the Vatican is of course held PRIVATELY -- whatever policy they put in place is not to open all kinds of sensitive records for the world's peoples and individuals with good motives and bad ones. There have over the decades been thriller novels and movie screenplays about the "secrets and conspiracies" -- it would have materials of importance for those with foreign language and ancient cultures - societies knowledge

Ask at your local Roman Catholic church about how they relate to the Pope and to the Vatican itself -- there is a lot to learn about how Americans can understand how a 21st Century set of expectations are being tested and "opened" for those with Twitter and Facebook expectations . . .