fancy bible. >> safer: there you go. >> janz: and this is what he got. >> safer: library curator timothy janzto make by hand letter by letter, picture by picture. >> janz: decorated with real gold. >> safer: it's just one of the library's 80,000 handwritten manuscripts from the ages before the printing press. add to that those two million or so printed books, christian and pagan, sacred and profane, in virtually every language known to man. there are thousands of prints and drawings, windows on the past. and a huge collection of ancient coins-- this was the money of palestine 2,000 years ago-- including the kind of silver coins judas was said to have been paid to betray christ. here is a map of the world drawn 50 years before columbus; at its edge, the towers of paradise. and an immediate best seller columbus' description of his voyage to the new world, published in 1493. in a certain way, the library is kind of the attic of western civilization. >> michael collins: it's so true. and it's like many attics, you know? you put things up all the time. you keep on pushing over boxes to make space