Water is something we all tend to take for granted, except for those times when there is not enough–or too much–or, as is the case in some parts of the world, unsafe to drink.
“AQVA” is the inaugural exhibition of the Vatican Apostolic Library’s new five‑year cycle Catastrophe and Wonder (Catastrofe e Meraviglia), inaugurated on September 14, 2026 by Pope Leo XIV. It runs from September 25, 2026 through May 4, 2027. “AQVA” (Catastrophe and Wonder – Year I, 2026–2027) marks the beginning of a new multi‑year exhibition program at the Vatican Apostolic Library. It examines water’s dual nature—life‑giving and destructive—through an immersive, interdisciplinary installation.
Water as threat: floods, decay, and the vulnerability of manuscripts.
Water as resource: life, renewal, and cultural inspiration.
The exhibit focuses on natural elements as metaphors for humanity’s fears and hopes, especially threats to written heritage such as water, fire, light, insects, and human intervention.
Featured artworks by artists are:
JR (French artist): Diluvium, a monumental installation covering the 16th‑century façade of the Library, inspired by Gustave Doré’s “Great Flood” and meditating on the fragility of knowledge and memory
Bill Moran (American typographer): contemporary typographic interventions dialoguing with the Library’s collections.integrating letterpress and typographic design with the Library’s heritage.
Fulvio Pierangelini (Italian chef): linking culinary culture, ecology, and the materiality of water culinary‑thematic contributions connecting gastronomy with the exhibition’s themes.
The exhibit continues through spaces linking the Vatican Library’s heritage with aquatic themes and contemporary artistic languages and concludes in the Barberini Hall, transformed into a contemplative environment.
Two exceptional copies of Ippolito Salviani’s Aquatilium animalium historia (1557)—a Renaissance masterpiece combining scientific study of fish, fine engraving, and culinary culture are displayed in honor of the 470th anniversary of its publication, originally funded by the Vatican Library.