Bibliothèque Mazarine

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The Institut de France in which the Bibliothèque Mazarine was kept
Reading room

The Bibliothèque Mazarine (French pronunciation: ​[biblijɔtɛk mazaʁin]) is the oldest public library in France.

History

The Bibliothèque Mazarine was initially the personal library of Cardinal Mazarin (1602–1661), who was a great bibliophile. His first library, arranged by his librarian, Gabriel Naudé, was dispersed when he had to flee Paris during the Fronde.

He then began a second library with what was left of the first, assisted by the successor to Naudé, François de La Poterie. At his death he bequeathed his library, which he had opened to scholars since 1643, to the Collège des Quatre-Nations which he had founded in 1661. Reopened in 1682, the Mazarin library has occupied the eastern wing of the Bâtiments du Collège since its inception. The Collège des Quatre-Nations became in 1805 the Palais de l’Institut de France.

By the time of the French Revolution, the Bibliothèque Mazarine sheltered more than 60,000 volumes. The library became public and received a considerable number of books seized from the nobles or from religious congregations. Among its collection of 2,370 incunabula is a specimen of the Gutenberg Bible known as the Bible Mazarine.

Former French president François Mitterrand's once illegitimate and hidden daughter Mazarine Pingeot is said to be named after this library because of her parents' love for books.

Librarians

References

    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

    External links

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    Coordinates: 48°51′26″N 2°20′13″E / 48.85722°N 2.33694°E / 48.85722; 2.33694

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