WELCOME
                                to

     ROME REBORN: THE VATICAN LIBRARY & RENAISSANCE CULTURE

                        an Exhibit at the
                       Library of Congress
                      Washington, DC  20540

                 Available by anonymous FTP from
                          seq1.loc.gov
                         (140.147.3.12)

                      /pub/vatican.exhibit



ROME REBORN:  THE VATICAN LIBRARY AND RENAISSANCE CULTURE
presents some 200 of the Vatican Library's most precious
manuscripts, books, and maps--many of which played a key role in
the humanist recovery of the classical heritage of Greece and
Rome.  The exhibition presents the untold story of the Vatican
Library as the intellectual driving force behind the emergence of
Rome as a political and scholarly superpower during the
Renaissance.  The exhibit will be on display in the Jefferson
Building of the Library of Congress from January 8, 1993 through
April 30, 1993.  The online exhibit will be available by
anonymous FTP indefinitely.

     The exhibit is divided into nine (9) sections:  The Vatican
Library, Archaeology, Humanism, Mathematics, Music, Medicine &
Biology, Nature Described, A Wider World I: How the Orient Came
to Rome, and A Wider World II: How Rome Went to China.  Each
section consists of its own sub-directory within the /exhibit
directory and contains the exhibit text for that section and
separate image files for each object.  This online exhibit
includes not only objects from the Library of Congress exhibit,
but also the alternate objects (brought from Rome to be used if
there were a problem with one of the primary objects) and items
omitted later in the planning process.

     The exhibit text consists of the captions used in the
exhibit at the Library of Congress (LC).  Each caption includes
the Vatican Library's accession number, the pages displayed
(where appropriate), the Online Exhibit Number (which is the
corresponding image file's filename), and the Object List Number
(used in setting up the exhibit).  In some instances, several
objects illustrate a common theme, in which case their
descriptions are separated from the others by a jagged line
(\/\/\/\/\/).  This convention is also used to separate different
sections in the introductory text (file Intro.txt).

     A 320 page catalog, "Rome Reborn:  The Vatican Library and
Renaissance Culture," containing over 200 color illustrations of
the exhibit is available in soft-cover from the Library of
Congress and in hard-cover from Yale University Press.  See the
file Catalog.txt in the vatican.exhibit directory for more
information about the book "Rome Reborn."

     The file Object_index contains a complete list of objects
found in both the exhibit and the catalog.  This index is
organized by the Vatican Library's accession number and for each
object lists a brief title, the Plate Number (used in the
catalog), the Online Exhibit Number (image filename), and other
control numbers used in planning the exhibit at LC.  The file
Master_list includes only the control numbers, in column format,
so that it can easily be sorted by any of the numbers.

     Because the exhibit text consists of only brief captions,
the image files are of greater importance in this exhibit.  Be
sure to change to type BINARY (in FTP type the command "binary")
before transferring the image files.  Text files are in ASCII. 
To search for a particular name or item, consider importing the
text files into your word processor and using its search
capabilities to find any references, then downloading the
appropriate image files.  The Library of Congress is grateful to
GTE ImageSpan for digitizing the images from 35mm slides and for
providing JPEG compression software.

     The /viewers sub-directory includes some shareware JPEG
viewers and an extraction program.  If you know of other or
better public domain JPEG viewers that we should load here,
please send information on where to obtain them to the system
technician, K.D. Ellis, (Internet address kell@seq1.loc.gov).  

     The text and images in the Online Exhibit ROME REBORN: THE
VATICAN LIBRARY AND RENAISSANCE CULTURE are for the personal use
of students, scholars, and the public.  Any commercial use or
publication of them is strictly prohibited.

     Questions or comments about the CONTENT of the exhibit
should be sent to vatican@kell.loc.gov while any questions or
comments on the SYSTEM should be sent to kell@seq1.loc.gov.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

                   STRUCTURE OF ONLINE EXHIBIT

pub/vatican.exhibit/
     Bibliog.txt
     Catalog.txt
     Events.txt
     History.txt
     Intro.txt
     Master_list
     Object_index
     README
     WARNING

     exhibit/
          a-vatican_lib/
               Vatican_lib.txt
               vlib01.jpg
               vlib02.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               vlib34.jpg

          b-archeology/
               Archeology.txt
               arch01.jpg
               arch02.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               arch27.jpg

          c-humanism/
               Humanism.txt
               human01.jpg
               human02.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               human27.jpg

          d-mathematics/
               Mathematics.txt
               math01.jpg
               math02.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               math22.jpg

          e-music/
               Music.txt
               music01.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               music30.jpg
          
          f-medicine_bio/
               Medicine_bio.txt
               medbio01.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               medbio12.jpg

          g-nature/
               Nature.txt
               nature01.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               nature08.jpg

          h-orient_to_rome/
               Orient_to_rome.txt
               orient01.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               orient22.jpg

          i-rome_to_china/
               Rome_to_china.txt
               china01.jpg
                     |
                    \|/
               china14.jpg

     viewers/
          dcview10.zip
          dvpeg2.zip
          fview10.zip
          jpeg3.zip
          qextract.exe

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README                                                     1/8/93