The Vatican Library Mystery

In 1997 the Swiss Guard came in and shut down the businesses that existed near the Vatican library including a coffee shop and library store. What followed was the removal of Father Boyle, the prefect of the Vatican Library. Boyle was an Irish priest who rose to the Prefect position in 1984 and had an ambitious goal of modernizing the Vatican Library. Built by Sixtus V in the 1580’s the Library has a long tradition of collecting books throughout the world and contains ancient manuscripts like no where else. In order to achieve his goal Boyle contracted with an American Iannessa who was responsible to license Vatican Library merchandise with the hopes of raising money to upgrade the Library.

The trouble started when raising money for the project Boyle and Iannessa contracted with Carver, a son of a car dealer, without seeking advice from the Vatican legal counsel. In his naiveté Boyle “loaned” money to Iannessa to purchase a new home thus began legal action that in the end cost the Vatican $8.8 million plus legal fees. Along the way Iannessa was able to sign license agreements with several companies raising money so Boyle gave her a contract extension. In attempting to kill the golden goose (licensing) the Vatican has refused to honor the contract thus causing more legal disputes. Many feel that the Vatican will simply settle the contract dispute so they can proceed with IBM and digitization.

Boyle died in 2000 but some of his goals were achieved including an air conditioned reading room and the project to computerize the Vatican Library’s book collection is complete.