Artificial Intelligence Is Cracking Open the Vatican's Secret Archives

The Vatican Secret Archives is one of the grandest historical collections in the world. It’s also one of the most useless.

The grandeur is obvious. Located within the Vatican’s walls, next door to the Apostolic Library and just north of the Sistine Chapel, the VSA houses 53 linear miles of shelving dating back more than 12 centuries. It includes gems like the papal bull that excommunicated Martin Luther and the pleas for help that Mary Queen of Scots sent to Pope Sixtus V before her execution. In size and scope, the collection is almost peerless.

That said, the VSA isn’t much use to modern scholars, because it’s so inaccessible. Of those 53 miles, just a few millimeters’ worth of pages have been scanned and made available online...

It was bound to happen sooner or later - the marriage of leading edge tech with religion or religious history. The project is called "In Codice Ratio" and uses a combination of artificial intelligence and OCR to make these ancient, priceless documents available to more than just the few scholars who go through the process of obtaining permission and then schlepping to the Vatican to spend a day.

It will also make the titles, subjects and texts of the documents searchable - which will be a bonanza for the people that have been dying to have the secrets of that archive let loose in the world.

Here's the full article in "The Atlantic":

Artificial Intelligence and the Vatican Archives

Many people think there are some real earth shattering secrets contained within the Vatican's archives covering topics ranging from the Catholic Church itself, to the "real" life of Christ, to earth shattering prophesies and predictions. If so, what's the ATS over/under on that kind of stuff being made available to the masses?

I wish I could have gained access to the VSA, I just could not qualify.
But I have schlepped around the Vatican quite a bit, the foods good 4 days a week and the beer is always cold. I didn't care for the fish, and on Friday everything tastes like fish.

a reply to: Riffrafter

It would be great to have access to the Vatican archives. Who knows? Maybe they even have some parts of collections from other great libraries that were burned down. I think it's humanely possible but would require lots more people than the Vatican has working for it today and would take many decades just to train them all.

How would artificial intelligence help? As your article pointed out, not much as it exists today. The types of handwriting shown in the pictures are especially easy to read compared to what some of these old texts look like.

To get a computer to recognize all of the languages including ones that are now extinct and all of the dialects going back 12 centuries, good luck. Add to that spelling was kind of a matter of personal taste and the fact that before a certain date, most of these languages were written with no vowels, we start to see what we are up against.

Just to transcribe everything would take an army of experts from around the world and then they would need to be translated into modern languages. Look at how thay worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls. That's just a tiny fraction of the amount of material in a relatively well known ancient language.

Like they'd release the really juicy, eye opening stuff.

That'll be 'lost to the ages', or 'unexpectedly destroyed' somehow.

a reply to: wylekat

Probably just some rehashed Dan Brown manuscripts.

🤣

the vatican hiding the archives is a crime against humanity and should handled as such my military tribunals

along with trials against the Bush, Rothschild, Clinton, Obama, Rockefeller and other black nobility and Jesuit bloodlines that have been working to keep humanity from advancing into the future

originally posted by: wylekat
Like they'd release the really juicy, eye opening stuff.

That'll be 'lost to the ages', or 'unexpectedly destroyed' somehow.

Like what, what hasn't been said or suggested, what new theory, faith isn't already public.
I have read so many conspiracy,,so many theory, so many story, I don't think there is anything hidden from us

That's so exciting, thanks for sharing this, it was an interesting read.

A part of me is also excited that someone will accidentally come across some eye opening texts that have been hidden away for centuries. Common sense would say that anything like that is secured away somewhere else and will not be available to public, but just imagine... some monk hiding away a few pages between some books. Or someone misplacing a book a 100 years ago that will just surface.

originally posted by: Raggedyman

originally posted by: wylekat
Like they'd release the really juicy, eye opening stuff.

That'll be 'lost to the ages', or 'unexpectedly destroyed' somehow.

Like what, what hasn't been said or suggested, what new theory, faith isn't already public.
I have read so many conspiracy,,so many theory, so many story, I don't think there is anything hidden from us

Like, oh, say the church's rich history of child sexual abuse. I'm sure it's been written down somewhere. I bet it'll never see the light of day, either. Or other abuses. Or their robbery of people for their property, or the details of the Inquisition, or....

a reply to: Kharron

Agreed.

One of the benefits of making the codices/documents/books/scrolls searchable (by keyword, or date or whatever) is someone may just stumble across something they weren't expecting - like an odd document coming up in a search that when read, starts them on an adventure of sorts.

We don't even know what "dots" are included in the archives. Once we do, smart people can then begin connecting those "dots". Who knows what correlations can be made leading to discoveries or insights once this project really gets rolling.

An entire room filled with manuscripts debating the number of angels that could fit on the head of a pin?

Just came across the info below a few days ago...

The Spirit of God says, “I will split the Vatican and it’s leadership wide open for the entire world to see the inner workings of this ancient beast. There is a dig, an archaeological find that is coming in an underground vault, which will be so cataclysmic that it will ROCK the Christian world.” ~ Mark Taylor

The Spirit of God says, “The Pope and the Vatican, that’s right the Pope and the Vatican are not furthering My Kingdom, but are aiding the kingdom of darkness. Many are saying that this is the last Pope, but it’s not for the reasons they think. This will be the last Pope, for what I the Lord God am about to do.

I will expose this Pope and all those under his command for all the corruption he and the Vatican have been involved in for centuries.” The Spirit of God says, “There is a shaking and a quaking coming to this Pope and the Vatican, for I will split the Vatican and it’s leadership wide open for the entire world to see the inner workings of this ancient beast.

All Roads Lead to Rome!

Christian author Mark Taylor says God is going to reveal truths about the Vatican. Taylor says the word given to him says, “This is going to boggle the mind. Look at what God is exposing here. He (God) says there is an archeological find that is coming.

I think this archeological find is going to be on multiple levels. Some have said it will be the Ark of the Covenant. It could be relics. I sense, and I am not prophesying this, I sense it could be scrolls. It could be manuscripts. You are going to find out . . . they wanted to keep man divided.

Mark Taylor – God Will Reveal Truth About Vatican

This is going to affect everyone. God is performing a rescue mission right now. . . . The truth is going to come out, and it is going to set people free because they have been trying to control and manipulate the people through religion, power, and money. God is going to pull the veil back and expose all of this because he’s trying to rescue his people.”

'Trump Is Going Nowhere. He Will Be President For The Next 7 Years'

This Pope, the Vatican and all it’s leadership, will come crumbling down. I will pull back the veil to show how deep and dark the deception has been. You whisper in your inner chambers ‘we answer to no one. No one is above us; No one can hold us accountable.’

I the LORD God see it all and the time has come when I will now hold you accountable for your darkness. This exposure will be of such magnitude that the people will say. ‘What do we do now? Where do we go now? We want nothing to do with this. We have no religion now.’ Millions will walk away from their religion, as this will affect other religions as well.”

The Spirit of God says, There is a dig -- an archeological find -- that is coming in an underground vault which will be so cataclysmic that it will ROCK the Christian world. The answer lies between Jerusalem and Vatican City.

All Roads Lead to Rome!

originally posted by: Murgatroid
Just came across the info below a few days ago...

If there is a multi-dimensional, transtemporal superbeing controlling existence, I can't quite figure out why it would even bother with us, and I certainly can't figure out why he/she/it would talk to some average slob and give them the inside scoop on anything.

People who say "God" talks to them are just afraid of voicing their own, personal opinions.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Who is more foolish, the Theist afraid of the dark or the atheist afraid of the light?

My own personal opinion is that this is what's on your dinner menu...

originally posted by: Murgatroid
Who is more foolish, the Theist afraid of the dark or the atheist afraid of the light?

What do you think? As far as I'm concerned, religious aphorisms aren't clever enough to really be insightful, or funny enough to laugh at. The overall feeling I get from them is just a kind of dull smugness.

But you be you!

originally posted by: wylekat

originally posted by: Raggedyman

originally posted by: wylekat
Like they'd release the really juicy, eye opening stuff.

That'll be 'lost to the ages', or 'unexpectedly destroyed' somehow.

Like what, what hasn't been said or suggested, what new theory, faith isn't already public.
I have read so many conspiracy,,so many theory, so many story, I don't think there is anything hidden from us

Like, oh, say the church's rich history of child sexual abuse. I'm sure it's been written down somewhere. I bet it'll never see the light of day, either. Or other abuses. Or their robbery of people for their property, or the details of the Inquisition, or....

Oh wow
Didn't know we didn't know about the sexual abuse in the church, in fact I read about it and watched it on tv. I did and do know,,

The church robbing people, really, maybe selling sins as well, murdering witches and gays, corruption with the Nazi party, the details of the inquisition, are they hidden, arnt they already public record. Yes they are public record

Jesus has children, was gay, married a prostitute that's already been said and written
Christianity is a lie, is a cult, is pagan and copied from all other religions, is that information hidden away or has that been said aloud for centuries

What exactly, what's hidden,mwhat could be in those archives that hasn't already been imagined and theorized and talked about

Or what exactly...........

originally posted by: Murgatroid
a reply to: Blue Shift

Who is more foolish, the Theist afraid of the dark or the atheist afraid of the light?

My own personal opinion is that this is what's on your dinner menu...

You seem to put an awful lot of faith in these men
They couldn't false

originally posted by: Nickn3
I wish I could have gained access to the VSA, I just could not qualify.
But I have schlepped around the Vatican quite a bit, the foods good 4 days a week and the beer is always cold. I didn't care for the fish, and on Friday everything tastes like fish.

The next best things are the Anglo-Saxon chronicles:

www.britannia.com...

And a visit to Mont St. Michel

goo.gl...

a reply to: Riffrafter

Organized crime cartel,have been since recorded time,.who knows what they have in their possesions,hundreds of years of seizures,miles of stolen artifacts,the Catholic church is largest organized crime,it's a joke

a reply to: Oldtimer2

Sounds like what's in there is 12 centuries of detailed notes about all the pedophile sex rings and how to kill and steal from the rest of the world. Oh yes, let's not forget all that about Jesus being gay, married and a plagiarist. Also the Pope is a Nazi. Leave anything out?

Case solved. We already know what's in there. Move along. Nothing to see here.

In keeping with longstanding ATS tradition, it's now time for half a dozen Buddhists to pile on with full page posts trash talking Christianity.