The first 256 documents to be digitalised form part of a broader project to make a large section of this prestigious archive freely available to students, scholars, researchers and teachers.
The library, founded in 1451, has been supported in this work of digitalisation by a £2 million grant from the Polonsky Foundation and other sponsors.
Speaking to Vatican Radio on Wednesday, the prefect of the Vatican Library, Mgr Cesare Pasini said it had taken two years to make this first selection of manuscripts available online.
He said the majority of the documents have been digitalised as a result of a joint project with the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
A similar project with the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford is also underway to make more of the material available as soon as possible.
For full details of how to obtain an electronic reader’s pass for access to these documents, visit the website: www.vaticanlibrary.va