The Publications Office develops tools for the dissemination and promotion of the art-historical heritage entrusted to the Directorate of the Vatican Museums.
Ensuring compliance with current copyright legislation, the unit employs specific strategies for planning, analysis and optimization of workflows to ensure the production and printing of scientific essays, guides, catalogues, series, monographs, miscellanies and a variety of graphic materials.
The entire activity of the Office converges, as shown also in the Catalogue of Publications, towards the aim of documenting, exploring and disseminating the richness of the museum collections, as well as the mission and institutional initiatives of the Directorate.
Annual production currently consists of approximately fifteen titles, available for purchase both inside the Museums and via an e-commerce platform.
The Office was established in 2010, incorporating and expanding the functions of the former Publications and Reproductions Sales Office. A well-established publishing entity, it brings together a wide range of professionals and, as a service hub, coordinates all aspects of book production for the museum institution. Specifically, it handles the following workflows: graphic and editorial (editing, proofreading, auxiliary text processing, layout, colour correction, photo editing), legal and administrative (rights management, publishing contracts, releases, photo credits), typographical (printing estimates, choice of materials and layouts, pre-press, checking blueprints and colour proofs) and post-production (processing of promotional materials and data sheets, routing of gifts and justification copies, computerised census and preparation for distribution).
In performing its functions, the Publications Office interfaces with a variety of internal and external partners: authors/clients (management, museum curators), translators, photographers, graphic designers and illustrators, agencies and photographic archives, superintendents, libraries, universities, foundations, embassies, other publishers, and other museums.
The Publications Office is responsible for protecting the registered trademark Edizioni Musei Vaticani (EMV), which is owned by the Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage.
An expression of collaboration with the Directorate and the Editorial Commission of the Museums, the editorial production, summarised in the periodically updated Catalogue, covers both scientific studies (Annual Bulletin of the Museums, conference proceedings, restoration documentation, departmental research) and the production of exhibition and collection catalogues, as well as the design and development of educational materials: guides, educational volumes, and photographic books.
The Office regularly offers its services for graphic and/or editorial work requested by other offices, laboratories and departments (invitations, brochures, leaflets, posters, logos, panels, billboards, banners, packaging, business cards, etc.).