TheBibliothèque nationale de France (French:[biblijɔtɛknɑsjɔnaldəfʁɑ̃s];[a]BnF) is thenational library ofFrance, located inParis on two main sites,Richelieu andFrançois-Mitterrand. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including books and manuscripts but also precious objects and artworks, are on display at theBnF Museum (formerly known as theCabinet des Médailles) on the Richelieu site.
The National Library of France is a public establishment under the supervision of theMinistry of Culture. Its mission is to constitute collections, especially the copies of works published in France that must, by law, be deposited there, conserve them, and make them available to the public. It produces a reference catalogue, cooperates with other national and international establishments, as well as participates in research programs.
The National Library of France traces its origin to the royal library founded at theLouvre Palace byCharles V in 1368. Charles had received a collection of manuscripts from his predecessor,John II, and transferred them to the Louvre from thePalais de la Cité. The first librarian of record was Claude Mallet, the king's valet de chambre, who made a sort of catalogue,Inventoire des Livres du Roy nostre Seigneur estans au Chastel du Louvre. Jean Blanchet made another list in 1380 and Jean de Bégue one in 1411 and another in 1424. Charles V was a patron of learning and encouraged the making and collection of books. It is known that he employedNicholas Oresme,Raoul de Presles (conseiller de Charles V) [fr], and others to transcribe ancient texts. At the death ofCharles VI, this first collection was unilaterally bought by the English regent of France, theDuke of Bedford, who transferred it to England in 1424. It was apparently dispersed at his death in 1435.[3][4][5]
Charles VII did little to repair the loss of these books, but the invention of printing resulted in the starting of another collection in the Louvre inherited byLouis XI in 1461.Charles VIII seized a part of the collection of the kings ofAragon.[6]Louis XII, who had inherited the library atBlois, incorporated the latter into theBibliothèque du Roi and further enriched it with theGruthuyse collection and with plunder fromMilan.Francis I transferred the collection in 1534 toFontainebleau and merged it with his private library. During his reign, fine bindings became the craze and many of the books added by him andHenry II are masterpieces of the binder's art.[4]
Under librarianship ofJacques Amyot, the collection was transferred to Paris and then relocated on several occasions, a process during which many treasures were lost.[citation needed]Henry IV had it moved to theCollège de Clermont in 1595, a year after the expulsion of the Jesuits from their establishment. In 1604, the Jesuits were allowed to return and the collection was moved to theCordeliers Convent, then in 1622 to the nearbyConfrérie de Saint-Côme et de Saint-Damien [fr] on therue de la Harpe. The appointment ofJacques Auguste de Thou as librarian initiated a period of development that made it the largest and richest collection of books in the world. He was succeeded by his son who was replaced, when executed for treason, byJérôme Bignon, the first of a line of librarians of the same name. Under de Thou, the library was enriched by the collections of QueenCatherine de Medici. The library grew rapidly during the reigns ofLouis XIII andLouis XIV, due in great part to the interest of MinisterJean-Baptiste Colbert, himself a dedicated collector of books.[4]
The site in the Rue de la Harpe becoming inadequate, the library was again moved, in 1666, to two adjacent houses in Rue Vivienne. After Colbert, Louis XIV's ministerLouvois also took interest in the library and employedJean Mabillon,Melchisédech Thévenot, and others to procure books from every source. In 1688, a catalogue in eight volumes was compiled.[4] Louvois considered the erection of an opulent building to host it on what would become thePlace Vendôme, a project that was however left unexecuted following the minister's death in 1691.
Galerie Mazarin, Richelieu site
The library opened to the public in 1692, under the administration of AbbottCamille le Tellier de Louvois, the minister's son. The Abbé Louvois was succeeded byJean-Paul Bignon, who in 1721 seized the opportunity of the collapse ofJohn Law'sMississippi Company. The company had been relocated by Law into the former palace ofCardinal Mazarin aroundHôtel Tubeuf, and its failure freed significant space in which the Library would expand (even though the Hotel Tubeuf itself would remain occupied byFrench East India Company and later by France's financial bureaucracy until the 1820s). Bignon also instituted a complete reform of the library's system. Catalogues were made which appeared from 1739 to 1753 in 11 volumes. The collections increased steadily by purchase and gift to the outbreak of theFrench Revolution, at which time it was in grave danger of partial or total destruction, but owing to the activities ofAntoine-Augustin Renouard andJoseph Van Praet it suffered no injury.[4]
The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the radical phase of theFrench Revolution when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. After the establishment of theFrench First Republic in September 1792, "the Assembly declared theBibliothèque du Roi to be national property and the institution was renamed theBibliothèque Nationale. After four centuries of control by the Crown, this great library now became the property of the French people."[3]
Salle ovale before restoration, Richelieu site
A new administrative organization was established.Napoleon took great interest in the library and among other things issued an order that all books in provincial libraries not possessed by theBibliothèque Nationale should be forwarded to it, subject to replacement by exchanges of equal value from the duplicate collections, making it possible, as Napoleon said, to find a copy of any book in France in the National Library. Napoleon furthermore increased the collections by spoil from his conquests. A considerable number of these books were restored after his downfall. During the period from 1800 to 1836, the library was virtually under the control of Joseph Van Praet. At his death it contained more than 650,000 printed books and some 80,000 manuscripts.[4]
Following a series of regime changes in France, it became theImperial National Library and in 1868 was moved to newly constructed buildings on theRue de Richelieu designed byHenri Labrouste. Upon Labrouste's death in 1875 the library was further expanded, including the grand staircase and the Oval Room, by academic architectJean-Louis Pascal. In 1896, the library was still the largest repository of books in the world, although it has since been surpassed by other libraries for that title.[7] By 1920, the library's collection had grown to 4,050,000 volumes and 11,000 manuscripts.[4]
In 2024, the library removed four 19th-century books from its public access, namely two volumes ofThe Ballads of Ireland published in 1855, a bilingual anthology of Romanian poetry dating from 1856, and book of theRoyal Horticultural Society published between 1862 and 1863, after tests indicated that their covers and bindings were coloured using green pigments containingarsenic.[8]
The Richelieu site occupies a full city block in Paris, surrounded byrue de Richelieu (west),rue des Petits-Champs (south),rue Vivienne [fr] (east), andrue Colbert [fr] (north). There are two entrances, respectively on 58, rue de Richelieu and 5, rue Vivienne. This site was the main location of the library for 275 years, from 1721 to 1996. It now hosts theBnF Museum as well as facilities of the BnF, the library of theInstitut National d'Histoire de l'Art (in theSaller Labrouste since 2016), and the library of theÉcole Nationale des Chartes. It was comprehensively renovated in the 2010s and early 2020s on a design by architectsBruno Gaudin [fr] and Virginie Brégal.
Façade on rue de Richelieu
Main courtyard (Cour d'honneur)
Courtyard of formerHôtel Tubeuf, on rue des Petits-Champs
View of theBibliothèque nationale de France, François-Mitterrand site
On 14 July 1988,PresidentFrançois Mitterrand announced "the construction and the expansion of one of the largest and most modern libraries in the world, intended to cover all fields of knowledge, and designed to be accessible to all, using the most modern data transfer technologies, which could be consulted from a distance, and which would collaborate with other European libraries". Due to initial trade union opposition, awireless network was fully installed only in August 2016.
As of 2016[update], the BnF contains roughly 14 million books at its four Parisian sites (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand, Richelieu,Arsenal, andOpéra) as well as printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps and plans, scores, coins, medals, sound documents, video and multimedia documents, and scenery elements.[12] The library retains the use of the Rue de Richelieu complex for some of its collections.
The Manuscripts department houses the largest collection of medieval and modern manuscripts worldwide.The collection includes medievalchansons de geste andchivalric romances, eastern literature, eastern and western religions, ancient history, scientific history, and literary manuscripts by Pascal, Diderot, Apollinaire, Proust, Colette, Sartre, etc. The collection is organised:
The library holds about 5,000 Ancient Greek manuscripts, which are divided into threefonds:Ancien fonds grec,fonds Coislin, andFonds du Supplément grec.[13]
according to content: learned and bibliophilic, collections of learned materials, Library Archives, genealogical collections, French provinces, Masonic collection, etc.
Gallica[14] is thedigital library for online users of theBibliothèque nationale de France and its partners. It was established in October 1997. Today it has more than six million digitized materials of various types: books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, cartoons, drawings, prints, posters, maps, manuscripts, antique coins, scores, theater costumes and sets, audio and video materials. All library materials are freely available.
On 10 February 2010, a digitized copy ofScenes of Bohemian Life byHenri Murger (1913) became Gallica's millionth document. In February 2019, the five millionth document was a copy of the manuscript "Record of an Unsuccessful Trip to the West Indies" stored in theBibliothèque Inguimbertine and on 30 March 2023 the ten millionth document was added.[15]
As of 2024[update], Gallica had made available online approximately 10 million documents :
864,428 books
186,495 manuscripts
5,804,801 newspapers and magazines issues
1,792,736 images
196,486 maps
64,967 music scores
52,004 audio recordings
519,877 objects
5,585 video recordings
Most of Gallica's collections of texts have been converted into text format usingoptical character recognition (OCR-processing), which allows full-text search in the library materials.
Each document has a digital identifier, the so-called ARK (Archival Resource Key) of the National Library of France and is accompanied by a bibliographic description.
^abPriebe, Paul M. (1982). "From Bibliothèque du Roi to Bibliothèque Nationale: The Creation of a State Library, 1789–1793".The Journal of Library History.17 (4):389–408.JSTOR25541320.
^Konstantinos Staikos (2012),History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Petrarch to Michelangelo, New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press,ISBN978-1-58456-182-8
Bibliothèque nationale (France),Département de la Phonothèque nationale et de l'Audiovisuel. The National [Sound] Record[ings] and Audiovisual Department of the National Library [of France]. [Paris]: Bibliothèque nationale, [1986]. 9 p.
David H. Stam, ed. (2001).International Dictionary of Library Histories. Fitzroy Dearborn.ISBN1-57958-244-3.
