Bibliothèque Mazarine

Photograph of the library interior by German librarian Fritz Milkau, from the photographic workshop of the Prussian state library of 1926-1933

The Bibliothèque Mazarine 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 60000 volumes. The library, became public and received a considerable number of books seized from the nobles or from religious congregations. Among its collection of 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

• Gabriel Naudé
• Charles Palissot de Montenoy
• Charles Marie Dorimond de Féletz
• Jean Augustin Amar-Durivier
• Joseph Naudet : -1848
• Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve : 1840-1848
• Jean-Jacques Ampère
• Armand d'Artois
• Pierre Gasnault
• Christian Péligry

External links

• (French) Site Internet de la bibliothèque (French)

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