10 Years of the Vatican Library Digital Archive

The Vatican Apostolic Library safeguards some of the world’s most ancient and fragile texts. Within its walls, millennia of tradition and knowledge are preserved so that they may inspire future generations. However, as preserving these texts is of such high importance, the ability to study them is limited to those able to travel to the heart of the Holy See and gain in-person access.
Our client NTT DATA has been helping the Vatican Library to digitize the vast breadth of books and documents they conserve there. They asked us to create a video that documents this invaluable process that is democratizing access to the Vatican’s cultural treasures, sharing them with people all over the world.
Our film’s objective was to capture the unique intersection of the Japanese-headquarted global IT innovator NTT DATA and the Vatican Library. We wanted to make a piece that celebrated both the wonder and majesty of a historical institution’s secretive collection, but also recognised the important cultural work by a multinational tech company. It was also important to showcase the cutting-edge AMLAD digital archiving technology and humanize its value.
Through months of pre-production and forming a trusting bond with stakeholders in both Tokyo and the Vatican, we were able to create a video that navigated multiple locations, countries, languages and cultural sensitivities. From a rare opportunity to film in the Vatican itself and speak with the library’s Prefect, to meeting project leads in Tokyo and finally, witnessing the value of the digitized documents through the eyes of an Oxford scholar, we captured the various ways different stakeholders have passionately engaged with the project. The result is a deeply human story that demonstrates the ways technology can bring people together through the embrace of shared knowledge.
Delivering up to 30 times higher viewership than typical content on NTT DATA’s channel, the film quickly became one of its strongest-performing pieces, achieving over 2,300 views within its first month. It brought their decade-long partnership with the Vatican Library to a broader audience, increasing visibility beyond its traditional IT positioning.