Italy – The Vatican Library and UPS for an enhanced use of the “Marega Collection”

20 May 2016

(ANS – Rome) – On the occasion of the Feast of Mary Help of Christians, next May 24th, at the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), Prof. Mauro Mantovani, Rector of the University, Msgr. Cesare Pasini, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, and Fr. Paolo Zuccato, Prefect of the University ‘Don Bosco’ Library, will sign a collaboration agreement between the Vatican Library and the UPS concerning the “Marega Collection” and in particular the enhanced use of the about 300 Japanese documents collected by the Salesian missionary Fr. Mario Marega, datable to the “Edo Period” (1603-1868) of the history of the country of the Rising Sun.

Thanks to this agreement, the Vatican Apostolic Library, which among its collections numbers also a similar one comprising over 10.000 documents collected by Fr. Marega – a collection that today is given enhanced value with a joint long-term project with the “Inter-University Research Institute Corporation-National Institutes for the Humanities of Japan” – commits itself for the next 50 years to preserve and scientifically value the said manuscripts which, while remaining the property of UPS, will be deposited at the Vatican Apostolic Library, to be restored and then kept in the most appropriate way. Besides, the “Don Bosco” Library will have access to the descriptive data and the images of the entire “Marega Collection” of the Vatican Apostolic Library.

The signing of this agreement is also due to the prestigious and competent consultancy of Card. Raffaele Farina, SDB, former Archivist of the Secret Vatican Archive and Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library, as well as Rector of the UPS, of Prof. Ohtomo Kazuo, of the “National Institute of Japanese Literature” and of Prof. Silvio Vita, Rector of the Italian School for East Asian Studies in Kyōto.

This collaboration, in the agreed upon modalities, will put the entire collection of historical documents collected by Fr. Mario Marega at the disposal of scholars, and will allow also the documents sent to the UPS to be adequately restored and used.

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