Vatican

the residence of the pope. It is situated west of the Tiber in the extreme western part of the city of Rome, Italy, but is reached easily by tramways. Since 1377 it has been the permanent residence of the pope and his official family. Provision is made for the papal offices and for the residence of numerous cardinals. The Vatican covers thirteen and one-half acres of ground and is the largest palace in the world. Six acres are devoted to open courts; the remainder is occupied by hallways, magnificent marble stairways, chapels, offices, halls, reception rooms, museums, and private living apartments. There is a tradition that there are 11,000 chambers, but, as a matter of fact, there are 1,000 rooms in all. Councils are held and new popes are elected at the Vatican. The vast interests of the Catholic church are directed from the Vatican. The pope gives audiences here and has an army of cardinals, secretaries, guards, and domestics at his command.

Visitors from all parts of Christendom throng the Vatican and are received with the utmost courtesy. The great entrance and stairways are admired. The most noted rooms are the Sistine Chapel and the papal reception rooms. The ceiling and walls of the former were frescoed by Michelangelo; those of the latter by Raphael. They are the greatest frescoes in existence. They are without rivals in the world of art.

The Vatican gallery contains pictures by these great masters, as well as by Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, and others. It is one of the great picture galleries of the world. It is said to contain fewer inferior paintings than any other of the great collections. Among the art treasures are the Raphael tapestries. They were woven in wool, silk, and gold at Brussels, after patterns painted for the purpose by Raphael. They were designed to cover the lower and unpainted part of the walls of the Sistine Chapel, but have been put away as far too precious even for this purpose. Seven of the designs from Raphael's brush are owned by the South Kensington Museum at London.

The Vatican museums occupy vast suites of rooms. They possess the finest collections of Grecian and Etruscan antiquities in the world. The Vatican galleries are the best place in the world to study Greek sculpture. The cuts of the ancient gods and muses that are found in modern textbooks are made largely from the statues in this collection. The pieces known as the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, and a bust of Zeus are among the most noted. The vast collection of statues in Pentelic marble housed in beautiful halls of Carrara marble make a wonderful impression.

The Vatican library is also one of the world's great collections. It occupies twenty-five rooms. It contains not only a large accumulation of bound volumes, but 20,000 Latin and Greek manuscripts of the greatest interest to classical students. The archives contain the correspondence, acts, and records of the papal court, extending, in a more or less complete form, over a period of a thousand years. The chief librarian is a cardinal. Historians and others desiring to delve in the archives and manuscripts may obtain permission on recommendation of their ambassador or some institution of learning.

See Pope; Rome; Catholic Church; St. Peter'S