Bibliothèque nationale de France

"Gallica" redirects here.

Bibliothèque nationale de France
200px
Location	Paris
Established	1368
Collection size	13 million books and publications
Population served	2,101,816 (Paris)
Budget	155 million €
Director	Bruno Racine
Employees	2,700
Website	http://www.bnf.fr/

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.

History

The National Library of France traces its origin to the royal library founded at the Louvre by Charles V in 1368. It expanded under Louis XIV and opened to the public in 1692. The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the radical phase of the French Revolution when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. By an act of the revolutionary French National Convention, the Library became the first free public library in the world in 1793.

Following the series of regime changes in France, it became the Imperial National Library and in 1868 was moved to newly constructed buildings on the rue de Richelieu designed by Henri Labrouste.

New buildings

On 14 July 1988, President François 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. Surprisingly, the library does not maintain a wireless network. In July 1989, the services of the architectural firm of Dominique Perrault were retained. The construction was carried out by Bouygues. After the move of the major collections from the rue de Richelieu, the National Library of France opened to the public on 20 December 1996. It contains more than ten million volumes.

Template:Station paris metro

The library retains the use of the rue de Richelieu complex for some of its collections.

File:Bnf 20070218.jpg

Buildings of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, seen from the right bank of the Seine river. On the left side, the Simone-de-Beauvoir footbridge and on the right side the Bercy bridge.

Mission

Reading Room, Richelieu site

The National Library of France is a public establishment under the supervision of the Ministry 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, and participates in research programs.

Greek manuscripts

The library holds about 5,000 Greek manuscripts, which are divided into three fonds: fonds grec, fonds Coislin, and supplément grec.

Gallica

File:VBRITTO-bnf-man-with-hat-paris.jpg

François Mitterrand site, East entrance/exit

In 1997 the digital library was established for online users. As of April 2006, Gallica made available on the Web: 90,000 scanned volumes, 1,200 full-text volumes, 500 audio documents, and 80,000 images.

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal

The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (Library of the Arsenal) in Paris is one of the branches of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

History

The collections of the library originated with the private library of Marc-René, 3rd marquis d'Argenson (1722–1787), installed in 1757 in the residence of the Grand Master of the Artillery, at the heart of the ancient Arsenal of Paris. The Arsenal itself was founded by King François I in the 16th century, later rebuilt by Sully, and expanded by the architect Gabriel Germain Boffrand in the 18th century. Paulmy had assembled a magnificent collection, particularly rich in medieval manuscripts and prints. In 1786 he also acquired the collection of the duc de la Vallière, but then sold the entire library to the comte d'Artois.

The library was sequestered by the state during the French Revolution, and was greatly expanded by many valuable items seized from the abbeys of Paris and also by the archives of the Bastille. On 28 April 1797 it was declared a public library.

In 1824, the writer Charles Nodier became librarian and held in the Arsenal some the most reputable literary salons of the day. In the 19th century the collections became increasingly focused towards literature, especially drama. Between 1880 and 1914 the library acquired a copy of every periodical published in Paris. In 1934 it became a department of the Bibliothèque nationale.

The library today

The library today holds approximately one million volumes (including 150,000 pre-1880 volumes), just over 12,000 manuscripts, 100,000 prints, and 3,000 charts and plans. Its collecting policy concentrates on French literature from the 16th century to the 19th century, publications connected with the archives and manuscript collections (fonds) already held, bibliophilia, the history of the book and bookbinding, and the history of the Arsenal itself and its occupants.

Major collections

• Archives of the Bastille: The archives of the Bastille date from 1660 onwards. They comprise prisoner dossiers (including those of the marquis de Sade and other famous prisoners), the archives of the Lieutenancy of Police of Paris, the Chambre de l'Arsenal and the Chambre du Châtelet, private papers of the officers of the Bastille, and a portion of the papers of the Royal Family.
• Fonds Prosper Enfantin: Paul-Mathieu Laurent, known as Laurent de l'Ardèche, was a disciple of the Saint-Simonist Prosper Enfantin and librarian of the Arsenal. In 1865, he acquired the papers of Enfantin, which are a rich source for the history of Saint-Simonism.
• Fonds Lambert: In 1969, Pierre Lambert, a bookseller who had devoted his life to collecting items connected with the writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, bequeathed his collection to the library. It includes manuscripts, letters, works that belonged to Huysmans, and original editions of his works.
• Louis-Sébastien Mercier Papers: In 1967, the library acquired the papers of Louis-Sebastien Mercier (1740–1814), who had had a great influence on the evolution of the theatre and in particular on realistic drama, and who is particularly known for his descriptions of Paris. The collection contains biographical documents and correspondence, articles, notes, the manuscripts of Nouveau Paris and his plays and works of poetry and philosophy.
• Fonds Lacroix: Paul Lacroix, known as Bibliophile Jacob, worked at the Arsenal for several years. After his death in 1884 the library acquired most of his personal papers, including his collection of autographs, contained in letters from writers, musicians and philosophers, both contemporary with Lacroix and older.
• Fonds Péladan: In 1936, the Arsenal acquired all the papers of Joséphin Péladan (1858–1918), a spiritualist writer who was fascinated by the occult and in 1891 founded his own church.
• José-Maria de Heredia Collection: The daughters of the poet José María de Heredia, who was librarian of the Arsenal from 1901 until his death in 1905, gave the library a collection of portraits, manuscripts, works and letters concerning their father and themselves. One of them, Marie de Régnier (whose pen name was Gerard d'Houville), bequeathed her library to the Arsenal. The library is also very rich in items connected with the writer Pierre Louÿs, Heredia's son-in-law.
• Fonds Georges Douay: Georges Douay, Parisian man-about-town, theatre fan, and composer of songs and operettas, assembled a collection (mainly printed) on French theatre from the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century, which he bequeathed to the Arsenal in 1919.
• Archives Parlementaires: The official, printed record of the French National Assembly from the 1789 Revolution forward.
• Prints: The print collection comprises portraits, many caricatures of the Revolution and the Restoration, a topographic series of plans and views of cities, and major series of the 18th century Italian, German and English schools bought by Paulmy during his travels throughout Europe.
• Charts and Plans: Paulmy acquired a magnificent series of military reconnaissance plans that had been made for his uncle, the comte d'Argenson, who was Minister of War.
• Music: The Arsenal's collection of manuscript and printed music almost exclusively comes from the 18th century, except for a few medieval manuscripts. Most of the music collection was assembled by Paulmy.

The library is also rich in occult documents. These include the original manuscripts of The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin and the Book of the Penitence of Adam.

See also

• Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
• Cabinet des Médailles

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Riding, Alan. "France Detects a Cultural Threat in Google," New York Times. April 11, 2005.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Bibliothèque nationale de France

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Gallica

• BnF Web site
• Gallica, BnF's digital library
• Webpage about the library (in French)

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Bibliothèque_nationale_de_France  ^history
• Bibliothèque_de_l'Arsenal  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Bibliothèque nationale de France"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.