ARCA lecturer Judge Arthur Tompkins recently published in the Guardian a lengthy contribution about his 2011 visit to the Vatican Library (the Guardian piece is an edited version of a couple of posts previously published on the ARCA blog: here for Part One, here for Part Two, and here for Part Three).

Judge Tompkins describes the Pope's personal library, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, and his search for two manuscripts: Pal. Lat. 50, the Codex Aureus of Losch and MS Pal. Lat. 1071 for "De Art Venandi Com Avibus" literally "The Hunting of Birds", a Latin treatise on ornithology and falconry.