Bill goes to work

Bill worked at two libraries this trip--the library at the American Academy in Rome and the Vatican Library.

One morning I decided to accompany Bill to the Vatican Library. He entered the library through the Via di Porta Angelica and the Gate of Saint Anna.

I was not allowed to escort him to the door. Security is tight. In fact, security, like Rome itself, is composed of many layers. Here is Bill approaching the Swiss Guard. He (the guard) is wearing his winter outfit which looks a lot like his summer outfit--plain navy blue knickers and an overcoat (stylishly short to show off the legs?). Bill has cute legs, too!

Is the guard ducking into to the building to get a shot of espresso? I guess Bill didn't look like much of a threat.

Bill now has made it passed the second level of the security--the gendarme. Generally, he was saluted every day by the gendarme. Odd, but sweet.

Bill is making his way to the point where he made a right turn and went out of sight.

The Vatican Library has peculiar rules. Like the libraries at Cambridge and Oxford, Bill had to place his book order and the staff hunted down the book for him. He was not allowed to order more than five books a day and could not place orders after noon. Also, and we found this strange, no one at the Vatican Library really spoke English. Bill had to rely on his French, Italian, and Latin to get by.

As to Bill's use of Italian this trip, I must brag. The first time we met Diane (who doesn't speak English, but I know she understands some of it) she asked (in French) why Bill studied mostly dead languages. You see, at that meal Bill really spoke nothing but English. My reply to Diane (in really bad French) was that by knowing dead languages Bill was under no pressure to speak a foreign language. Well, this trip Bill was downright--era loquace--chatty, and in Italian, too. Bravo, Bill!

Bill was mostly looking at the marginalia in books. Apparently, the Vatican Library divides books into stampe (published books) and manuscritti (manuscripts). One day he found a stampa book wherein there was a lot of marginalia and the book had been rebound to include folia of handwritten pages. This posed a conundrum for the Library staff. One staff member was so impressed by his discovery that the following day he was introduced to the Director of Manuscripts (who spoke French, naturellement). The Director found Bill's project and his discovery interesting and wished him luck (or rather, la bonne chance).