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There are journeys that are measured in miles, days, and hours, and others that are measured in pages and chapters. In their own way, collections of fashion, art, or books can also be a journey; and in this sense, the Vatican Library is perhaps among the most extraordinary and profound. Living in Rome, we often forget that Vatican City is a state, the smallest in the world. At the Permit Office I clasp my passport in my hands, aware that I am crossing a border. Only later, when I returned to Italy, did I realize how symbolic that very bureaucratic gesture was.
Welcoming me at the entrance of the Vatican Library is Don Giacomo Cardinali, commissioner of the Exhibition Hall and Aiuto-Scriptor, that is, part of the scientific staff that is in charge of cataloging and studying the library’s various holdings. It is he who guides me through the stories of En Route, the exhibition he curated together with Simona De Crescenzo, Francesca Giannetto, and Delio V. Proverbio with the support of Maison Dior. It is a project that celebrates the universal power of travel through the visions of Maria Grazia Chiuri, singer Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini and visual artist Kristjana S Williams.
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On the occasion of the Jubilee celebrations of 2025, “En Route” showcases the holdings of Cesare Poma, an Italian diplomat who amassed an incredible collection of about 1,200 diverse newspapers that tell stories of travelers who crossed the globe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; including some in Guaraní, Hebrew, and the first women’s fashion magazines.
Also in the exhibition is the journal En Route, published by Lucien Leroy and Henri Papillaud, two French journalists who undertook a trip around the world between 1895 and 1897, and financed it by reporting on the places they visited. Alongside these all-male adventures, stories of women who overcame the stereotypes of the time and set out on their own tour de monde can be found. Prominent among the many exploits is that of Nellie Bly, an American journalist who managed to convince Joseph Pulitzer to finance her round-the-world journey, which was created to beat Phileas Fogg, the protagonist of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. Bly’s venture was a success: the journalist completed the round trip in 72 days, while the New York World newspaper followed each stage with constant updates, turning the trip into a media event.
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Opening the exhibition is Cherubini’s work, which includes many of his travel objects now seen as ready-mades: the bicycle on which he travels; his notebooks full of reflections, portraits, and sketches; and his personal travel library, with the texts that most inspired him on his journey, along with the music he listened to. Williams, meanwhile, has created a dreamlike and symbolic visual narrative that has transfigured the worlds seen in the Poma collection. Her small and romantic dioramas, almost three-dimensional collages with a surrealist flavor, stand side-by-side with copies of the everyday En Route, translating it into visual substance.
It is Chiuri in collaboration with Karishma Swali and the artisans of the Chanakya School of Craft who closes the exhibition. “It is a great privilege to have been invited to exhibit in the Vatican Library, one of the oldest collections of books, maps, and manuscripts. Knowledge and creativity are totally intertwined for me; I am honored and flattered to have been able to imagine a project in such a significant place for our global education and culture,” she said. At the back of Chiuri’s room is a tapestry-planisphere with Simone de Beauvoir’s “Femininity: The Trap” reproduced on the lines of a corset pattern. A sort of symbol of the power of dress to allow freedom of travel, not just in space, but also over time.
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