The Room of the Addresses of Leo XIII (1878-1903) and St. Pius X (1903-14) follows, where many letters of congratulation to these popes are kept. Continuing from the Chapel of St. Pius V, a small room can be observed on the left of the Room of the Addresses: the extremely valuable Roman fresco of the Aldobrandini Wedding, one of the gems of the Vatican, is preserved here. The long gallery continues with the Room of the Papyruses, so called because it contains a series of papyrus scrolls of the early Middle Ages (6th-9th centuries). The next room, the Christian Museum, founded by Benedict XIV in 1756, exhibits important Christian antiquities including glass, bronze, silver and ivory objects from the Roman catacombs.
This is in fact where the Library itself begins, with the Gallery of Urban VIII, which contains a collection of astronomical instruments. The two sections called the Sistine Rooms follow: on the dividing wall between the first and second room, on the side of the latter is a fresco portraying the Transportation of the Obelisk to St. Peter's Square (1586). On the right of the gallery is the great Sistine Hall, the heart of the library, preceded by a vestibule.
The artistic splendor of the Sistine Hall should not make the visitor forget the value of the documents exhibited in the show-cases: manuscripts dating to the 4th century, palimpsests, or in other words, ancient parchments scratched out in the Middle Ages so that new texts could be written on them, incunabula or examples of the most ancient printed books and drawings and miniatures by expert artists. Lastly, one show-case contains a large variety of papal coins from different periods. The visitor then proceeds to the sections of the corridor called the Pauline Rooms, designed during the pontificate of Paul V, that is, in the first two decades of the 17th century. Next is the Alexandrine Room (called after Alexander VIII) opposite the exit of the Braccio Nuovo, which was created in 1690.
The Clementine Gallery follows, it owes its name to Clement XII (1730-40).
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