Bibliothèque Mazarine
The Bibliothèque Mazarine, or Mazarin Library, is located within the Palais de l'institut de France, or the Palace of the
History
The founder of the library, Cardinal Jules Raymond Mazarin (1602–1661), was born Giulio Ramondo Mazzarino in
With the death of Louis XIII in 1643, Mazarin became the new Prime Minister, with the support of the Queen, Anne of Austria. He immediately began constructing a palace for himself on rue de Richelieu in Paris, with an enormous chamber fifty-eight meters long designed especially to house his library. Visitors, including Frederick III, the King of Denmark, came from around Europe to see his library, and to model their own royal libraries after his. Between 1642 and 1653, Mazarin's librarian, Gabriel Naudé, traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and Holand, buying entire libraries for Mazarin's collection, making it the largest library in Europe at the time, with forty thousand volumes.[3]
The library nearly came to an end in January and February 1652 with the outbreak of the
Mazarin then began a second library with what was left of the first, assisted by the successor to Naudé, François de La Poterie. Since 1643, Mazarin had opened his library to scholars. It was open on Thursdays, and each week some eighty to one hundred came to do research. By the 1660s, the library held 25,000 volumes.
After his experience with the Fronde, Mazarin wanted to assure that his library remained intact after his death. In his will written March 6, 1661, three days before his death, he bequeathed his library to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, a new college of the University of Paris that he founded for the sons of noble families from four provinces recently added to France. The new library building was constructed on the exact site of the medieval Tour de Nesle, or Nesle Tower, on the banks of the Seine. On the fronton is the inscription in Latin: Bibliotheca a fundatore mazarinea (Library founded by Mazarin). The original bookcases of his library, decorated with carved Corinthian columns and with the coat of arms of the Cardinal, were moved to the new location in the east wing of the college, along rue de Richelieu. The new library opened for Easter in 1689.[6]
The library continued to grow during the 18th century, from 36,000 volumes in 1730 to 50,000 in 1771. The French Revolution did no harm to the collection, and in fact greatly increased its size; the librarian, Gaspard Michel, bought books which had been confiscated from monasteries and from nobles who had gone into exile, and increased the collection to more than 60,000 volumes. He also collected works of art, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, gilded bronze chandeliers, Louis XVI commodes, a globe of the heavens by Gastellier from 1694, and other objects which decorate the reading room today.
In 1805, under
The Collections
The library today contains about 600,000 volumes. The oldest part of the collection, brought together by Mazarin, contains about 200,000 volumes on all subjects. The more modern collections specialize in French history, particularly religious and literary history of the Middle Ages (12th–15th centuries) and the 16th and 17th centuries. Other specialities are the history of the book and the local and regional history of France.
Among the library's collection of 2,370
The manuscript collection of Mazarin comes from an exchange made in 1668 with the Royal Library of France, now the
In the 19th and 20th centuries. the library received donations of important collections, including the archives of Pierre-Antoine Lebrun, Joseph Tastu, Arsène Thiébaut de Berneaud; and the library and archives of the scientists Albert Demangeon and of Aimé Perpillou (geography); the library of Marcel Chatillon (History of the Antilles) and a part of the archives of the Chevalier de Paravey (voyages); of Jean-Jacques Ampère (Nordic civilizations) and of Prosper Faugère (Pascal and Jansenism).
Access
The Library is located at 23 quai de Conti. It is open to the public every day, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10:00 until 18:00. It is closed each summer from August 1 until August 15.
References
Notes and citations
- ISBN 979-10-210-3105-0.
- ^ Péligry 1995, p. 28.
- ^ Péligry 1995, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Péligry 1995, p. 29.
- OCLC 277203534.
- ^ Péligry 1995, p. 32.
Bibliography
- Péligry, Christian (1995). Le palais d'Institut de France- La Bibliothèque Mazarine. Beaux Arts Magazine/Institut de France.
Further reading
- Edward Edwards. Memoirs of libraries including a handbook of Library economy. v.2. London: Trübner, 1859
- A. Franklin, Histoire de la bibliothèque Mazarine, 2e éd., Paris, H. Welter, 1901 (1st edition, 1860)
- Adolphe Joanne. The Diamond Guide for the stranger in Paris. Paris: Hachette, 1867
- "Mazarine Library." Report of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom: ... held in Paris ... 1892. London: 1893
- M. Piquard, " La bibliothèque de Mazarin et la Bibliothèque Mazarine, 1643–1804 ", in: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Compte-rendus des séances de l’année 1975, janvier-mars, 1975, p. 129–30.
- P. Gasnault, " De la bibliothèque de Mazarin à la Bibliothèque Mazarine ", in: Histoire des bibliothèques françaises. Les bibliothèques sous l’Ancien Régime, 1530–1789, 1988
- La Bibliothèque Mazarine, no 222 (déc. 2000-janv./fév. 2001) of Arts et métier du livre
- David H. Stam, ed. (2001). "Mazarine Library". International Dictionary of Library Histories. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-57958-244-3.
External links
- (in French) Site Internet de la bibliothèque (French)
- Video presentation of the Mazarine library, in French on YouTube