ROME REBORN: The Vatican Library and Renaisance Culture

Library of Congress
1993
Washington, DC, United States

The 1993 exhibit “Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture, ” installed in the remodeled historic rooms of the southwest curtain of The Library of Congress, featured a notable selection of rare books, manuscripts, maps and other documents seldom seen outside the Vatican. In addition to working collaboratively with 1717 Design Group on the design of the exhibit, MGA designed permanent casework for the Library of Congress, which is archival-quality, climate-controlled, secure, appropriately lit and flexible enough to be adapted for future installations. The two types of cases, one tall and column-like and the other low and wall-like, were designed in modules so that they could arranged in various combinations. Clad in pear wood, the cases were treated as large-scale furniture with an architectural character compatible with the scale and classical style of the galleries. The casework is still in use today.