WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.439 Picture this. You know, the year is sixteen eleven. 2 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:05.080 Okay, setting the scene right. 3 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:08.560 You are a senior librarian working under Pope Paul the Fifth, 4 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:12.000 and you have just been handed what might actually be 5 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.320 the single most daunting administrative task in the history of 6 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:16.120 the Western world. 7 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:16.320 Oh. 8 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:21.000 Absolutely, You are implementing a comprehensive top to bottom catalog 9 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.879 reform in the Vatican Library. And you have to realize, 10 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:27.960 for you listening, this is not like organizing a local 11 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:30.559 university's special collections, you know. 12 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.399 Not at all. I mean, the sheer scale of what 13 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:35.280 we were talking about in sixteen eleven is just mind. 14 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:37.520 Bending, it really is. You are standing in the middle 15 00:00:37.799 --> 00:00:40.399 of holdings that span the entirety of the ancient world. 16 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.600 You're dealing with papyrus scrolls from Egypt, right. 17 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:47.000 And kudises from the Byzantine Empire, astronomical tables from the 18 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:49.320 Islamic Golden Age, yeah. 19 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:52.679 And theological texts from traditions that pre date Christianity entirely. 20 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.079 There are histories in a dozen different languages, some of 21 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.759 which maybe only three people on Earth can even still read. 22 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:02.560 And your job is to assign every single room, every shelf, 23 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.920 every display case a standardized reference number. The goal is 24 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:08.799 absolute mathematical. 25 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:09.799 Precision, which sounds like a nightmare. 26 00:01:09.879 --> 00:01:13.040 Honestly, oh, a total nightmare. You are creating a system 27 00:01:13.159 --> 00:01:16.319 so robust that any item can be located, retrieved, and 28 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.920 returned without any ambiguity whatsoever. 29 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:23.400 Right, So you work systematically, You count, you measure, you 30 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.519 number each room. But then, right at the very end 31 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.400 of your survey, deep in the oldest section of the archives, 32 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.200 you encounter a room that completely defies the logic of 33 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:34.519 your new catalog. 34 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.599 Because it appears to contain absolutely. 35 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:39.519 Nothing exactly small shelves, totally empty, the stone floor is 36 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:43.959 swept completely clean, but the air inside it just stops 37 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:44.640 you in your tracks. 38 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.799 You actually make a specific note in your official memo 39 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:49.319 to the Pope's Prefect about it. 40 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:51.480 Yeah, you write that the air in this room is 41 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:54.400 quote slightly different from the adjacent corridors. 42 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:57.959 It's cooler, stiller like, it has a quality that you, 43 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.640 a master of languages and ancient texts, simply do not 44 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:03.000 have a technical word for. 45 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:07.120 Right. And because your catalog and convention begins at room one, 46 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:10.520 in this space SIT's completely outside the logic of your 47 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.560 meticulously planned system, you designate it room zero. You write 48 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.800 down empty storage, you lock the heavy wooden door, and 49 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:18.319 you move on. 50 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.039 And if the story ended right there in sixteen eleven, 51 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.840 it would just be a quirky, you know, slightly atmospheric 52 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:25.800 footnote in an old Renaissance ledger. 53 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.240 But it doesn't end there, No, it doesn't. 54 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:32.319 That exact catalog entry Room zero, empty Storage reappears in 55 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:36.479 every single annual Vatican Library Catalog update from sixteen to eleven, 56 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:38.000 all the way to the present day. 57 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:41.280 Welcome to thrilling Threads. I am so incredibly fired up 58 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.840 about today's exploration because we are unpacking a staggering stack 59 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:46.120 of historical sources. 60 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:49.879 We really are. We've got internal memos, unmailed letters from Monsignior's, 61 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:55.639 diaries of archivists, structural engineering surveys, and even declassified diplomatic records. 62 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:58.240 It's massive. And our mission today, you guys, is to 63 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.840 look closely at ten high classified, physically sealed spaces within 64 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:03.800 the walls of the Vatican. 65 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.319 But we do need to establish some ground rules for 66 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:08.520 how we are looking at this material, because when you 67 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:13.039 talk about secret rooms in the Vatican, it's very easy 68 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:17.560 to veer into Internet conspiracy theories or sensationalism. Oh for sure, 69 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:19.960 and we are not doing that. This is a profound, 70 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:25.000 strictly documented look into the architecture of institutional secrecy. It's 71 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:29.039 about what happens when the most meticulously documented institution in 72 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:34.400 human history, an institution that literally keeps expense receipts from 73 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:37.919 the Renaissance, encounters anomalies. 74 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:42.520 Anomalies that completely shatter our understanding of physics, biology, and history, right. 75 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.520 And their response isn't to study it publicly. Their response 76 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.400 is to lock the door, lose the key, or in 77 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:50.919 some of the cases we're going to discuss today, literally 78 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:53.000 pour industrial concrete over it. 79 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.280 I also want to mention right up front for you 80 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:57.919 listening that our sources today we'll touch on some highly 81 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:01.800 sensitive historical periods. Eat Sample will be discussing materials acquired 82 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:04.280 during Mussolini's Ethiopian campaign, which. 83 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:05.680 Is obviously a very dark period. 84 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:09.879 Exactly, we want to state explicitly that our role here 85 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:13.479 is simply to relay the historical record impartially. We are 86 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.759 examining the source material exactly as it exists in the archives, 87 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:22.040 without taking political sides, inserting modern ethical debates, or endorsing 88 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:24.319 the actions of the eras we're discussing. 89 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:26.800 Right, We are here for the data, the anomalies, and 90 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.920 the history. We are acting as historical detectives, reading the 91 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.279 bureaucratic footprints left behind by people who were frankly terrified 92 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:36.079 of what they found. 93 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:38.000 So let's jump right back into room zero in the 94 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:41.839 Vatican Apostolic Library. We are starting our exploration today by 95 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:45.639 looking at spaces where the fundamental laws of physics, things 96 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:50.399 like thermodynamics, light and gravity, seem to just well break. 97 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:51.279 They just stop working. 98 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:53.480 Yeah, I need to wrap my head around this four 99 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:56.399 hundred and fourteen year surveillance of an empty room, because 100 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:58.279 I mean, if I have an empty closet in my house, 101 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:00.519 I'm not checking at every discement to make sure the 102 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:02.000 emptiness hasn't done something weird. 103 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.399 You've hit on the exact anomaly in the bureaucratic language there. 104 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:09.519 An empty room does not require annual confirmation of its emptiness. 105 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.160 Especially not in a place like the Vatican. 106 00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:14.560 Exactly, especially not in an institution that measures space at 107 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:18.959 an absolute premium. A room that is formally documented twelve 108 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.920 months at a time for four hundred and fourteen consecutive 109 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.879 years is not being passively recorded. It is being actively monitored. 110 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.560 That annual notation is not an administrative habit. It is 111 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:33.319 active surveillance written in the language of institutional record keeping. 112 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.439 It means that something in Room zero requires. 113 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:40.600 Checking on, like something about its status is not stable 114 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.720 enough to be left completely alone. Precisely, okay, so clearly 115 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.519 people on the inside. No, it's not just a dusty closet, 116 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:49.600 because between nineteen hundred and twenty twenty three, there have 117 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:53.319 been twenty three formal research access requests submitted to the 118 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:56.160 Vatican Apostolic Library specifically for Room zero. 119 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:58.160 And if you look at the disciplines of the people 120 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.720 asking to get in, it makes zero sense none. 121 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:04.040 We aren't just talking about Catholic theologians looking for lost Bibles. 122 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:09.160 These are paleographers, archaeologists, material historians, a biologist, a theoretical physicist. 123 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:11.959 And this is the one that really gets me, A 124 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:13.879 specialist in Acadian writing systems. 125 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.040 It's the lack of adjacency in those disciplines that should 126 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:19.879 really raise the hairs on your arms. There is no 127 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:24.360 obvious academic three line connecting an Acadian script specialist someone 128 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.000 who studies the cuneiform languages of ancient Mesopotamia, to a 129 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:31.560 modern theoretical physicist. No, not all they don't attend the 130 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:33.959 same conferences, they don't read the same journals. 131 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:37.680 Right, It's like pinging a disconnected computer server every day 132 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:40.199 for four centuries just to make sure the ghost of 133 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:42.800 the machine has it moved. If you have a physicist 134 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:45.759 and a linguist both obsessed with the same quote unquote 135 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.800 empty room, it means whatever is in there operates on 136 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:53.399 a level that bridges ancient human history and fundamental physical laws. 137 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:55.879 And all twenty three of those requests have been denied. 138 00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:58.639 The most recent one on record was actually in twenty nineteen. 139 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:00.000 Oh wow, really recently. 140 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:03.800 Yeah. It came from a Cambridge University researcher specializing in 141 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:07.560 ancient script systems that pre date any known writing. The 142 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:11.959 Vatican Library sent a very polite, standard bureaucratic reply, thanking 143 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.360 her for her interest, but stating that Room zero was unavailable. 144 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.519 Because the contents were under ongoing assessment. 145 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.519 Four hundred and fourteen years of ongoing assessment. 146 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:25.519 I love the absolute audacity of Vatican bureaucracy. Just incredible. 147 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.839 But you know someone did get in. The system isn't perfect. 148 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:31.199 One person is known to have access to Room zero 149 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:34.560 outside of the formal request process, and his account is 150 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:35.879 what blows this wide open. 151 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:38.120 Ah, Brother Jakomoventi. 152 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.600 Yes, in nineteen forty seven, this Vatican archivist named brother 153 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:45.439 Jacka Moventi used a master key to enter the room. Now, 154 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.560 just for context, nineteen forty seven is right after World War. 155 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:51.319 Two, right, Rome is recovering, the Vatican is dealing with 156 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:55.399 a massive influx of refugees and displaced archives. 157 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:59.319 Exactly, and administrative security protocols are frankly a total mess. 158 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:03.199 It's a windows of vulnerability in an otherwise impenetrable system, 159 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:06.079 and Jacoaaventi takes full advantage of it. He goes in, 160 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:08.639 and he is so deeply disturbed by what he finds 161 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.000 that he tells a colleague about it the very next morning. 162 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:12.560 I'm mon, signior turo Kletti. 163 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:17.279 Yes, and Cletti was a meticulous diarist. He wrote the 164 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:21.120 entire conversation down word for word. That diary actually sat 165 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.519 in a private collection until it was digitized by a 166 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.839 Roman historical society in twenty fourteen, which is how this 167 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:28.920 leaked into the historical record in the first place. 168 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:31.959 So what did Jakamaventi see Because he told Keltti the 169 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:37.080 room was absolutely, unequivocally not empty, he saw three objects, 170 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:37.600 three of them. 171 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:37.960 Yeah. 172 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.919 He described them as spherical, metallic in appearance, and positioned 173 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.240 slightly above shoulder height from the floor. 174 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:47.639 And crucially positioned above the floor with no pedestals, no wires, 175 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:49.360 and no visible means of support. 176 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:52.720 They were floating, which is just wild to even picture. 177 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:54.360 But I have to push back here for a second. 178 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:58.519 It's nineteen forty seven magnets exist. Could this just be 179 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:02.080 some elaborate trick of men magnetic levitation left over from 180 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.080 some eccentric nineteenth century cardinal. 181 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:06.919 It's a fair question, it really is. But if we 182 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:10.080 look at the physics of magnetic levitation, it requires either 183 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:14.559 a superconducting material chilled to extreme temperatures, which didn't exist 184 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.360 in that form, let alone in sixteen eleven, or an 185 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:20.240 active powered electromagnet. 186 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:22.399 Which they wouldn't have had running for centuries exactly. 187 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.480 But to commeavent, he noted something else. While he stood 188 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:30.600 frozen in the doorway. The objects actually moved slowly but perceptibly, 189 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:33.120 and they produced a distinct. 190 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:34.440 Sound, a low, persistent humming. 191 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:38.000 Yes. When he finally lost his nerve, stepped out and 192 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.080 locked the heavy wooding door behind him, he told Cletty. 193 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:44.000 He could still hear that sound faintly vibrating through the 194 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:46.960 wood for approximately four minutes before it finally stopped. 195 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.399 See that four minute detail is what convinces me this 196 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.480 isn't just a ghost story. It's too specific. If these 197 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.679 things have been in there since sixteen eleven, what kind 198 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:58.639 of energy source allows an object to float, move, and 199 00:09:58.759 --> 00:09:59.960 hum for centuries? 200 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:03.600 It entirely violates the conservation of energy, at least under 201 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:07.759 our standard models. To maintain levitation without aerodynamic lift or 202 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.960 electromagnetic suspension requires a massive constant energy. 203 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:13.960 Output, right, doesn't just happen for free. 204 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:15.799 And for an acoustic wave to be generated that hum, 205 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:19.080 something has to be vibrating and physically displacing the air 206 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:22.200 in the room. What likely happen is that Jacamoventi disrupted 207 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:26.240 whatever delicate atmospheric equilibrium existed in that room just by 208 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:27.080 opening the door. 209 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:29.600 Oh, because he changed the air pressure and the thermal 210 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:30.600 gradient exactly. 211 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:33.159 The spheres reacted to that change, which is why they 212 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:36.360 moved and hummed, and it took four minutes for the 213 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:39.000 room to return to its baseline state after he closed 214 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:39.399 the door. 215 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.320 You know, it reminds me of that sixteen to eleven. 216 00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:46.039 Note the air being quote unquote different cooler stiller. Whatever 217 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:49.679 those spheres are doing, they are manipulating the local environment 218 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:50.679 to maintain their state. 219 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.120 It's a localized physical anomaly. 220 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:57.240 And this brings us to another room that completely defies reality, 221 00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:59.720 but in a totally different way. If Room zero is 222 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:03.480 about manipulating gravity and energy, our next s base is 223 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.080 about light and matter. We are moving from the Library 224 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:10.480 to the Archive of Apostolicum. 225 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:13.320 The Vatican Secret Archives. This transition is fascinating because the 226 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:17.000 Secret Archives have a very different operational mandate than the Library. 227 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:20.320 Ohso well, the library is for books and manuscripts, right, 228 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.320 but the Archive is for the official correspondence, state papers, 229 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.679 and legal documents of the papacy. It is arguably the 230 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:29.759 most secure paper trail on Earth. 231 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:33.039 And in eighteen eighty one, Popelio the thirteenth does something 232 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.080 absolutely unprecedented. He unlocks the archive to non ecclesiastical scholars 233 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:41.279 for the first time since it was centralized in sixteen twelve. 234 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:42.679 A huge moment for historians. 235 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:46.320 Imagine being a German or French historian in eighteen eighty one, 236 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:50.679 finally getting access to this mythical place you're working through 237 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.200 the new finding aids methodically. The physical rooms are numbered 238 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:57.720 in sequence down a massive corridor. You walk past room one, 239 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.120 room two, all the way down to room twelve, and 240 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:01.679 the next door is room fourteen. 241 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:06.799 The catalog sequence cleanly, deliberately skips room thirteen, just skips it. Yeah, 242 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.159 there is no erata printed in the front of the book. 243 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:12.080 There is no administrative note explaining that two rooms were 244 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:15.200 consolidated into one. The numbers just jumped from twelve to fourteen. 245 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.480 And if you were a researcher who asked a cataloger 246 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:20.039 about it, the historical accounts say the clerks would look 247 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.720 at you completely blankly and flatley state there is no 248 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.000 Room thirteen, total denial, But the physical architecture of the 249 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:29.440 building tells a completely different story. Fast forward to nineteen 250 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:34.000 twenty seven. A Vatican archivist named Monsignor Petro Fini is 251 00:12:34.039 --> 00:12:38.320 consulting an old, dusty cross reference ledger for an entirely 252 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:42.480 unrelated project, like he was probating some old estate. 253 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:44.639 Right, a very mundane task. 254 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.639 And he notices reference codes in the margins that explicitly 255 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:51.639 point to a thirteenth room. Being a diligent archivist, he 256 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:54.399 submits an internal request for clarification to his. 257 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:57.200 Superiors, which is exactly what you'd expect a bureaucrat to do. 258 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:00.480 He thinks it's a simple filing error, but ks later 259 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:03.879 a senior prefect responds directly to Feeni, confirming that the 260 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:07.879 room designation had been quote retired and its contents transferred. 261 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:11.000 But the prefect conveniently leaves out exactly where they were 262 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.159 transferred to. And here's where it gets absolutely wild. Fieni 263 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.360 didn't just see a ledger entry. He actually saw the ring. 264 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.159 He did. In his private correspondence yeah. 265 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:22.360 A letter to his brother that was recovered decades after 266 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.639 Foeni's death, he wrote about a specific incident. A cataloger's 267 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:29.639 key ring was misplaced. A heavy door at the end 268 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.399 of the room twelve corridor, disguised to look like a 269 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:35.240 solid wall panel, was opened by accident for just a 270 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:37.639 fraction of a second by a maintenance worker and then 271 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:40.919 immediately slam shut. Feeni was standing right there, and what 272 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:42.960 did Phoene see in that fraction of a second? 273 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:46.720 He described two very specific things. First, he saw light, 274 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:48.679 but he explicitly noted it had no. 275 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.679 Visible source, no candles, no lanterns. 276 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:54.559 No windows, just ambient self generating light in a room 277 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:58.159 that had been sealed in darkness. Second, he saw a 278 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.799 surface or an object in the center of the and 279 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:05.519 he described it using a very specific, improvised Latin phrase lapis. 280 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.000 Non natis lapist non natas stone not born. Let's really 281 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.159 analyze the linguistic gymnastics happening here. FEEDI was a man 282 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.360 who spent his entire professional life handling medieval manuscripts. 283 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:17.200 Right, he knew his Latin. He was fluent in standard 284 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:22.440 liturgical Latin, academic Latin, and legal Latin. His vocabulary was massive, 285 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:27.240 Yet when confronted with this object, his vast linguistic toolkit 286 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.240 just failed him. He had to invent a phrase, stone 287 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.480 not born. It implies that he recognized the material as 288 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:37.240 sharing the visual and perhaps textural characteristics of stone, but 289 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.799 his brain immediately registered that it lacked the geological history 290 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:41.840 of formation, like. 291 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:44.679 It wasn't carved, it wasn't quarry exactly. 292 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:46.720 It didn't belong to the natural geology of Earth. 293 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:48.679 Okay, I have to stop and ask you, though, how 294 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:52.279 reliable is a fraction of a second glimpse. Human's memory 295 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:57.240 is notoriously terrible, especially when we're surprised could the sourceless 296 00:14:57.320 --> 00:15:00.360 light just be a trick of his eyes adjusting. Could 297 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.159 the stone not born just be a weirdly polished piece 298 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:03.639 of marble. 299 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:07.080 If it were just Finey's letter, you could absolutely write 300 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:08.600 it off as a trick of the light or an 301 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:12.600 overact of imagination. But it's the institutional response to Feoeni 302 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:14.000 that validates his sighting. 303 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:15.200 The cover up right. 304 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:19.399 Shortly after Phoene submitted his questions and had this accidental sighting, 305 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:23.360 that specific closs reference ledger he'd been using was permanently 306 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:26.120 removed from circulation. It just vanished. 307 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:26.879 Oh wow. 308 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:30.600 Furthermore, jump ahead to the modern era. Between twenty eight 309 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:34.639 and twenty fourteen, three independent researchers found the exact same 310 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.879 gap in the published catalog. They filed formal. 311 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:40.360 Access requests and let me guess denied. 312 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:43.759 The Vatican told them the material from Room thirteen had 313 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:47.320 been moved to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, But 314 00:15:47.399 --> 00:15:50.600 when those researchers followed up with that commission, the commission 315 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.559 confirmed in writing that no such transfer ever happened. 316 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:57.159 It's an institutional shell game. They're pointing at different departments 317 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:00.279 to exhaust the researchers but the physical building betrays them again, 318 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:01.240 doesn't it It does. 319 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:04.960 In nineteen fifty three, the Vatican brought in outside structural 320 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.879 engineers to reinforce that specific wing of the Archive building, and. 321 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:12.080 The municipal survey drawn up by those engineers shows a 322 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.080 large void, a physical room adjacent to the Room twelve 323 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:20.080 corridor that does not correspond to any catalog space on 324 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.519 the Vatican's official blueprints. When the lead engineer asked the 325 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.279 Prefect about it, he was brusquely told. 326 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:29.559 It was an obsolete utility chamber, and then the Prefect 327 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:33.000 gave a highly unusual order. He told the engineers to 328 00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:35.720 encapsulate the room entirely in masonry. 329 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:37.600 Wait, like, completely seal it. 330 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:40.320 Yes, they were instructed to strengthen the load bearing walls 331 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.440 from the outside and to literally lay brick and mortar 332 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:46.960 over the sealed door, entombing it within the architecture of 333 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:47.440 the building. 334 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:50.080 This is what drives me crazy. If the Vatican really 335 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.000 wanted this stone not born hidden, why not just put 336 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:55.000 it in a box, loaded onto a track at three 337 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:57.639 am and buried in a cave in the Alps. Why 338 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.360 go through the incredibly suspicious trouble of Britain picking up 339 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:02.919 a room in the middle of your active daily use archive. 340 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.200 That is the pivotal question, and it speaks to the 341 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.119 physical nature of the anomaly. The most logical, albeit unsettling, 342 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:13.119 theoretical answer is that whatever is inside Room thirteen physically cannot. 343 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:14.640 Be moved because it's too heavy, or. 344 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:18.400 Because it is intrinsically integrated into the localized space, or 345 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:22.000 perhaps most terrifyingly, the danger of interacting with it is 346 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:26.079 so profoundly high that the safest course of action was 347 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:28.519 to treat the room itself as a containment vessel. 348 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.039 A containment vessel. 349 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:32.759 You don't strengthen walls from the outside unless you are 350 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:34.880 trying to ensure that no one can ever get in, 351 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:39.160 or from a structural engineering standpoint, that whatever energy or 352 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.319 phenomenon is occurring inside cannot breach the rest of the building. 353 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:46.279 That phrase gives me chills. Containment vessel, and it leads 354 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:49.519 us perfectly into our next space, where containment actually failed 355 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:53.519 to suppress a fundamental law of physics dermodynamics. We are 356 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:57.160 leaving the archives and heading to the Borgia apartments on 357 00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:59.079 the first floor of the Apostolic Palace. 358 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:02.839 The Borgia apartments are stunning. They were built for Pope Alexander, 359 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:06.200 the sixth Rodrigo Borgia in the late fifteenth century. They 360 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:10.079 are heavily frescoed, incredibly ornate, and steeped in the infamous 361 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:11.599 history of the Borgia family. 362 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.240 And in two thousand and one they are undergoing a massive, 363 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:19.720 highly technical restoration. A master conservator is working out a 364 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.119 fresco paided in the fourteen nineties. She is running a 365 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:25.799 sonic probe along the wall to check for moisture damage 366 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:26.839 and plaster. 367 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:30.039 Detachment, a very standard procedure for restorations, right. 368 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.960 But the probe's feedback isn't behaving normally. She realizes the 369 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.640 plaster isn't just thick, there is a constructed, sealed void 370 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.759 behind the fresco. She reports the anomaly to her supervisor, 371 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:45.400 and the Vatican's response is immediate and draconian. 372 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.000 They instantly suspend the entire multimillion dollar restoration project. 373 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:53.920 Unidentified officials in dark suits arrive and they actually breach 374 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.839 the void, cutting through the five hundred year old fresco wall, and. 375 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:58.839 The restoration team is ordered to wait in the adjacent 376 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:00.799 room and absolutely not to look. 377 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:02.759 But you know, as anyone who has ever been in 378 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:06.440 an old building knows heavy wooden doors are rarely airtight 379 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:09.680 when it comes to sound. The conservatives standing near the door, 380 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:13.079 and she overhears the officials talking in Italian inside the void. 381 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:13.880 What did you hear? 382 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:16.680 One official notes that the ceiling of the hidden inner 383 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:21.279 room is painted. Another asks with what is it biblical? 384 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.319 And the first person says, taking a very long, heavy pause, 385 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.119 the stars but not ours. 386 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:31.200 Not ours a star chart showing constellations, planetary alignment, or 387 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.359 celestial bodies from a vantage point that is fundamentally not 388 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:35.640 Earth exactly. 389 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.640 And I know what you're thinking listening to this. Maybe 390 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.359 it was just a heavily stylized Renaissance zodiac that the 391 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:45.279 official didn't recognize. But it's what happens next that elevates 392 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:49.240 this from a weird painting to a physical impossibility. 393 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:49.880 To non disclosure agreements. 394 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.079 Yes, five members of the restoration team were pulled aside 395 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.799 and asked to sign severe, legally binding non disclosure agreements. 396 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:59.960 Two of them refused. One of those two, risking our 397 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.400 gave a veiled interview to a small, obscure Italian architectural 398 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:05.720 journal in two thousand and six. 399 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:08.000 It's amazing she went on the record at all considering 400 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:09.279 the pressure, she was careful. 401 00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:11.920