The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, located in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-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 the BnF Museum (formerly known as the ) on the 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.

History

The National Library of France traces its origin to the royal library founded at the Louvre Palace by Charles V in 1368. Charles had received a collection of manuscripts from his predecessor, John II, and transferred them to the Louvre from the Palais 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 employed

Nicholas Oresme Nicole Oresme (; c. 1320–1325 – 11 July 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, was a French philosopher of the later Middle Ages. He wrote influential works on economics, mathematics, physics, astrology ...

, Raoul de Presle and others to transcribe ancient texts. At the death of Charles VI, this first collection was unilaterally bought by the English regent of France, the Duke of Bedford, who transferred it to England in 1424. It was apparently dispersed at his death in 1435. 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 by Louis XI in 1461. Charles VIII seized a part of the collection of the kings of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...

. Louis XII, who had inherited the library at Blois, incorporated the latter into the ''Bibliothèque du Roi'' and further enriched it with the Gruthuyse collection and with plunder from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

transferred the collection in 1534 to Fontainebleau and merged it with his private library. During his reign, fine bindings became the craze and many of the books added by him and Henry II are masterpieces of the binder's art. Under librarianship of Jacques Amyot, the collection was transferred to Paris and then relocated on several occasions, a process during which many treasures were lost. Henry IV had it moved to the

Collège de Clermont In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children betwee ...

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 the Cordeliers Convent, then in 1622 to the nearby on the

rue de la Harpe The rue de la Harpe is a street in Paris' Latin Quarter. Relatively calm and cobblestoned along much of its length, it runs in a south-easterly direction between the rue de la Huchette and the rue Saint-Séverin, where it turns south-west to whe ...

. The appointment of Jacques 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, by

Jérôme Bignon Jérôme Bignon (1589–1656) was a French lawyer born in Paris. Life His family originated from the western part of France, and came to Paris at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was uncommonly precocious, and under his father's tuit ...

, the first of a line of librarians of the same name. Under de Thou, the library was enriched by the collections of Queen Catherine de Medici. The library grew rapidly during the reigns of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...

and

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

, due in great part to the interest of Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, himself a dedicated collector of books. 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 minister Louvois also took interest in the library and employed Jean Mabillon, Melchisédech Thévenot and others to procure books from every source. In 1688, a catalogue in eight volumes was compiled. Louvois considered the erection of an opulent building to host it on what would become the Place Vendôme, a project that was however left unexecuted following the minister's death in 1691. The library opened to the public in 1692, under the administration of Abbott Camille le Tellier de Louvois, the minister's son. The Abbé Louvois was succeeded by

Jean-Paul Bignon The Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon, Cong.Orat. (19 September 1662, Paris – 14 March 1743, Île Belle) was a French ecclesiastic, statesman, writer and preacher and librarian to Louis XIV of France. His protégé, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, named t ...

, who in 1721 seized the opportunity of the collapse of

John Law John Law may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Law (artist) (born 1958), American artist * John Law (comics), comic-book character created by Will Eisner * John Law (film director), Hong Kong film director * John Law (musician) (born 1961) ...

Mississippi Company The Mississippi Company (french: Compagnie du Mississippi; founded 1684, named the Company of the West from 1717, and the Company of the Indies from 1719) was a corporation holding a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and t ...

. The company had been relocated by Law into the former palace of Cardinal Mazarin around

Hôtel Tubeuf The Hôtel Tubeuf or Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry is a ''hôtel particulier'' located at 8 Rue des Petits Champs in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. It was built in 1635 to the designs of the French architect Jean Thiriot for , president of the . It wa ...

, and its failure freed significant space in which the Library would expand (even though the Hotel Tubeuf itself would remain occupied by

French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in th ...

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 the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, at which time it was in grave danger of partial or total destruction, but owing to the activities of Antoine-Augustin Renouard and Joseph Van Praet it suffered no injury. The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the radical phase of the

when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. After the establishment of the French First Republic in September 1792, "the Assembly declared the ''Bibliothèque du Roi'' to be national property and the institution was renamed the ''Bibliothèque Nationale''. After four centuries of control by the Crown, this great library now became the property of the French people." A new administrative organization was established.

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

took great interest in the library and among other things issued an order that all books in provincial libraries not possessed by the ''Bibliothèque 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. Following a 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 The Rue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the 1st arrondissement at the Comédie-Française and ending in the north of the 2nd arrondissement. For the first half of the 19th century, before Georges-Eugène Haussman ...

designed by Henri Labrouste. Upon Labrouste's death in 1875 the library was further expanded, including the grand staircase and the Oval Room, by academic architect

Jean-Louis Pascal Jean-Louis Pascal (4 June 1837 – 17 May 1920) was an academic French architect. Life Born in Paris, Pascal was taught at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts by Émile Gilbert and Charles-Auguste Questel. He won the Grand Pri ...

. 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. By 1920, the library's collection had grown to 4,050,000 volumes and 11,000 manuscripts.

Richelieu site

The Richelieu site occupies a full city block in Paris, surrounded by

rue de Richelieu The Rue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the 1st arrondissement at the Comédie-Française and ending in the north of the 2nd arrondissement. For the first half of the 19th century, before Georges-Eugène Haussman ...

(west),

rue des Petits-Champs Rue des Petits-Champs is a street which runs through the 1st and 2nd arrondissement of Paris, France. Location This one-way street, running east-west, is located between rue de la Banque and Avenue de l'Opera. History It was officially cr ...

(south), (east), and (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 the BnF Museum as well as facilities of the BnF, the library of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (in the since 2016) and the library of the École Nationale des Chartes. It was comprehensively renovated in the 2010s and early 2020s on a design by architects and Virginie Brégal. File:Bibliothèque nationale France Richelieu Louvois Paris 5.jpg, Façade on rue de Richelieu File:BnF Richelieu - préparation de la phase 2 des travaux dans la cour d'honneur.jpg, Main courtyard () File:Richeliey Tubeuf.jpg, Courtyard of former , on rue des Petits-Champs File:Richeliey garden.jpg, Garden bordering rue Vivienne File:Salle Labrouste INHA.jpg, File:La salle ovale du site Richelieu, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris 2022.jpg, File:La salle des colonnes, Musée de la BNF, site Richelieu, Paris 2022.jpg, BnF Museum,

François-Mitterrand Site

Paris 13e BNF Site François-Mitterrand 746

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". Due to initial trade union opposition, a wireless network was fully installed only in August 2016. In July 1989, the services of the architectural firm of Dominique Perrault were retained. The design was recognized with the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 1996. The construction was carried out by Bouygues. Construction of the library ran into huge cost overruns and technical difficulties related to its high-rise design, so much so that it was referred to as the "TGB" or "''Très Grande Bibliothèque''" (i.e. "Very Large Library", a sarcastic allusion to France's successful high-speed rail system, the

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

). After the move of the major collections from the

, the National Library of France was inaugurated on 15 December 1996. , the BnF contained roughly 14 million books at its four Parisian sites ( Tolbiac, i.e. Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand, and Richelieu, Arsenal and Opéra) as well as printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps and plans, scores, coins, medals, sound documents, video and multimedia documents, scenery elements..." The library retains the use of the Rue de Richelieu complex for some of its collections.

Manuscript collection

The Manuscripts department houses the largest collection of medieval and modern manuscripts worldwide. The collection includes medieval chansons de geste and

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric ...

s, 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: * according to language (Ancient Greek,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, French and other European languages,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Coptic, Ethiopian,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, Persian, Turkish, Near- and Middle-Eastern languages, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Sanskrit,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

,Indian languages, Vietnamese, etc.) **The library holds about 5,000 Ancient Greek manuscripts, which are divided into three ''fonds'': ''Ancien fonds grec'', ''

fonds Coislin Fonds Coislin (french: Le fonds Coislin) is a collection (or fonds) of Greek manuscripts acquired by Pierre Séguier, but named after Henri-Charles de Coislin, its second owner. It is now held in the National Library of France, as one of three fon ...

'', and ''Fonds du Supplément grec''. * according to content: learned and bibliophilic, collections of learned materials, Library Archives, genealogical collections, French provinces, Masonic collection, etc.

Digital library

Gallica is the

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...

for online users of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and its partners. It was established in October 1997. Today it has more than 6 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 February 10, 2010, a digitized copy of '' Scenes of Bohemian Life'' by Henri Murger (1913) became Gallica's millionth document. And in February 2019, the five millionth document was a copy of the manuscript "Record of an Unsuccessful Trip to the West Indies" stored in the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine. , Gallica had made available on the Web about: * 6 million documents * 690,311 books * 176,341 maps * 144,859 manuscripts * 1,468,952 images * 3,968,841 newspapers and magazines * 51,055 sheets of music * 51,170 audio recordings * 510,807 objects * 1,705 video recordings Most of Gallica's collections have been converted into text format using optical 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.

List of directors

1369–1792

* 1369–1411: ^{( fr)} * 1522–1540:

Guillaume Budé Guillaume Budé (; Latinized as Guilielmus Budaeus; 1468 – 1540) was a French scholar and humanist. He was involved in the founding of Collegium Trilingue, which later became the Collège de France. Budé was also the first keeper of the ...

* 1540–1552:

Pierre Duchâtel Pierre du Chastel or Duchâtel (died 1552) was a French humanist, librarian to Francis I of France. Pierre Duchâtel u Chastel, Castellanus, or Pierre Castellan was born in Arc-en-Barrois around 1480, and was chaplain to King François I from 1 ...

* 1552–1567: * 1567–1593: Jacques Amyot * 1593–1617:

Jacques-Auguste de Thou Jacques Auguste de Thou (Thuanus) (8 October 1553, Paris – 7 May 1617, Paris) was a French historian, book collector and president of the Parliament of Paris. Life Jacques Auguste de Thou was the grandson of , president of the Parliament ...

* 1617–1642:

François Auguste de Thou François-Auguste de Thou (c. 1607 - 12 September 1642) was a French magistrate. He was born in Paris, the eldest son of Jacques-Auguste de Thou. In 1617, with the death of his father, he inherited the office of Master of the Bookstore. Nicolas Ri ...

* 1642–1656:

* 1656–1684: * 1560–1604: * 1604–1614: Isaac Casaubon * 1614–1645: Nicolas Rigault * 1645–1651: Pierre Dupuy * 1651–1656: * 1656–1676: ; Pierre de Carcavi (1663-1683) * 1676–1684: ; Melchisédech Thévenot (1684-1691) * 1684–1718: Camille Le Tellier de Louvois; (1691-1712) * 1719–1741:

* 1741–1743: * 1743–1772:

Armand-Jérôme Bignon Armand-Jérôme Bignon (21 October 1711, Paris – 8 March 1772, Paris) was a French lawyer, royal librarian and conseiller d'État. Biography The lord of Île Belle and Hardricourt, he was made avocat général to the Grand Conseil in 1729, ...

* 1770–1784: ; (from 1775 to 1793) * 1784–1789: Jean-Charles-Pierre Le Noir (démission) * 1789–1792:

Louis Le Fèvre d'Ormesson de Noyseau Anne Louis François de Paule Lefèvre d'Ormesson de Noyseau (known as Monsieur de Noiseau), (26 February 1753 - 20 April 1794) was a French deputy, librarian, and Hellenist. From 1789 to 1792 he was director of the ''Bibliotheque du Roi'' (Royal ...

1792–present

* 1792–1793: and

Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort Sébastien-Roch Nicolas, known in his adult life as Nicolas Chamfort and as Sébastien Nicolas de Chamfort (; 6 April 1741 – 13 April 1794), was a French writer, best known for his epigrams and aphorisms. He was secretary to Louis XVI's siste ...

^{( fr)} * 1793: (interim) * 1793–1795:

Jean Baptiste Lefebvre de Villebrune Jean Baptiste Lefebvre de Villebrune (1732 in Senlis, Oise – 7 October 1809, in Angoulême) was a French philologist, physician and translator. Selected works * ''Dictionnaire des particules angloises, précédé d'une grammaire raisonnée, ouv ...

* 1795–1796: * 1796–1798: * 1798–1799: * 1799–1800: Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison * 1800–1803: Jean-Augustin Capperonnier * 1803–1806: * 1806–1829:

Bon-Joseph Dacier Bon Joseph Dacier (Valognes, 1 April 1742 – Paris, 4 February 1833) was a French historian, philologist and translator of ancient Greek. He became a Chevalier de l'Empire (16 December 1813), then Baron de l'Empire (29 May 1830). He also serve ...

* 1830–1831: Joseph Van Praet * 1832: Joseph Van Praet * 1832: Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat * 1832–1837: Jean-Antoine Letronne * 1838–1839: Edmé François Jomard * 1839: Charles Dunoyer * 1839–1840: Antoine Jean Letronne * 1840–1858: Joseph Naudet * 1858–1874: ; the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defende ...

appointed Élie Reclus (29 April to 24 May 1871) * 1874–1905:

Léopold Delisle Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist ...

* 1905–1913:

Henry Marcel Henri-Camille Marcel called Henry Marcel, (25 November 1854 – 6 March 1926) was a 19th–20th-century French senior official, general administrator of the Bibliothèque nationale de France from 1905 to 1913. In October 1903, he succeeded Henry ...

* 1913–1923:

Théophile Homolle Jean Théophile Homolle (19 December 1848, Paris – 13 June 1925, Paris) was a French archaeologist and classical philologist. Biography From 1869 he studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, receiving his agrégation for history in 187 ...

* 1923–1930: * 1930–1940:

Julien Cain Julien Cain (10 May 1887 – 9 October 1974) was the general administrator of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (then called the Bibliothèque nationale) before the Occupation of France by Nazi Germany. In August 1937, Cain was one o ...

* 1940–1944:

Bernard Faÿ Bernard Faÿ (; 3 April 1893 – 31 December 1978) was a French historian of Franco-American relations, an anti-Masonic polemicist who believed in a worldwide Jewish-Freemason conspiracy (see: Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory) and during World ...

* 1944–1945: (interim) * 1945–1964:

* 1964–1975: Étienne Dennery * 1975–1981: Georges Le Rider * 1981–1984: * 1984–1987: André Miquel * 1987–1993: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie * 1989–1994: * 1994–1997: Jean Favier * 1997–2002: Jean-Pierre Angremy * 2002–2007: Jean-Noël Jeanneney * 2007–2016: Bruno Racine * 2016–present: Laurence Engel

Notable patrons

Raoul Rigault, leader during the

, was known for habitually occupying the library and reading endless copies of the newspaper '' Le Père Duchesne''.

In popular culture

Alain Resnais directed '' Toute la mémoire du monde'', a 1956 short film about the library and its collections.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bibliotheque nationale de France 1368 establishments in Europe 1360s establishments in France 1792 establishments in France National libraries Culture of Paris