Department of the currencies, medals and antiques of the National library of France

History

The Cabinet shelters the collections of manuscripts, jewels and “medals” (name given, until the 19th century, with the ancient currencies) gathered by the kings of France since the Moyen-âge. They are then made up for the pleasure, but also like metal cap of safety. With leaving the wars of religion, Charles IX (reign of 1560 with 1574) creates the office of “guard private individual of the medals and antiques of the king” to protect the inheritance from the Crown.

It takes its true rise under Louis XIV: heir to the Cabinet of curiosities of his uncle, Gaston of Orleans, it enriches his collections by many acquisitions, of which the treasure of Childéric Ier, given by the emperor Léopold Ier in 1665. Starting from 1658, the king also requires of the printers to give to the Cabinet a specimen of each publication. Louvre, it makes transfer the Cabinet street Vivienne, within the Library of the king, in 1666, then with the Château of Versailles in 1684. Towards 1720, the Cabinet returns to Paris, in the old living room of the marchioness of Lambert. Robert de Cotte arranges it of 1720 to 1740: the museum preserves still today the médailliers of the time and paintings of Boucher, Natoire and Van Loo.

The museum acquires an increasing fame, attracting itself many gifts and legacy: thus antiques of the Count de Caylus or, in 1862, those of the duke of Luynes. In 1776, the abbot Barthélemy associates to him by purchase the collection of 32 500 ancient Greek currencies of J. Pellegrin. Integral part of the imperial Library, then of the National library, the Cabinet continues to increase her funds. In 1917, it is installed in its current buildings, on the first floor of the building of the street Richelieu.

Collections

The Cabinet of the medals shelters several collections of currencies:

currencies resulting from the French soil, the Gaulle at our days (60 000 specimens);
Greek currencies and Romans (225 000 specimens);
Eastern currencies, of the Near to the the Far East (55 000 specimens);
other foreign currencies (45 000 specimens).

Other numismatics objects are added to it: medals (93 000 specimens) and tokens (20 000 specimens), of the Rebirth at our days.

The Cabinet also contains nonmonetary objects, of which:

of the Cameo S and Intaglio S (20 000 specimens), of which the Large Cameo of France;
of the Greek ceramic and Etruscan;
of the Ivory S of the late Antiquity or the Byzantine Empire, of which a series of consular diptychs;
of moulded and blown, Greek and Roman glasses;
of the sculptures Egyptian, Greek or Roman;
of the parts of silverware sassanides or Islamic.

Lastly, the Cabinet of the medals shelters important data bases relative to its collections. Information center and of research, it publishes the series of the monetary Trésors (22 volumes, of 1979 with 2006). It is also the seat of the French company of numismatics.

List directors of the Cabinet

1719-1754 : Claude Gros of Boze;
1754-1795: Jean-Jacques Barthelemy, known as the abbot Barthelemy;
1795-1799: Andre Barthélemy de Courçay;
1795-1818: Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison;
1799-1830: François Pascal Joseph Gosselin;
1832-1840: Antoine Jean Letronne;
1818-1848: Desired Raoul-Rochette;
1840-1859: Charles Lenormant;
1859-1890: Pierre Marie Anatole Chabouillet;
1890-1892: Henri Michel Lavoix;
1892-1924: Ernest Babelon ;
1924-1937: Adolphe Dieudonné;
1937-1961: Jean Babelon;
1961-1975: Georges To wrinkle It;
1976-1987: Helene Pierre-Nicolet;
1988-1990: Cecile Morrisson;
since 1991: Michel Amandry.

References

Random links: