History of the National library of France

The National library of France (BnF), remote heiress of the bookstore of Charles V, knew a rich and sometimes animated history. This history, marked by the technical evolutions as well as by the external political decisions and circumstances, can be divided into three great periods, of which the last, definitely shorter, results in very important changes.

The Library of the King under the Old Mode

The National library of France draws its origin, according to the tradition, of the Bibliothèque of the king , made up with the Louvre by Charles V which causes translations, names Gilles Mallet like guard and makes carry out a Inventaire. However, this library will be dispersed after the death of the king Charles VI. It is starting from Louis XI that a new library is made up and (more important for the continuity of the establishment) is transmitted of king as a king, initially with Charles VIII, which made there enter the first printed works , then with Louis XII. This library is installed with Amboise, then with Blois.

As François Ier installs his own library with Fontainebleau, there exists a time two libraries royal, but that of Blois is moved with Fontainebleau as of 1544. It is also this king who, in 1537, founds the registration of copyright which makes it possible to enrich the library.

Under Charles IX, the new library, resulting from the fusion of the two preceding ones, is repatriated with Paris. Henri IV installs it with the Collège of Clermont (1594) then to the Couvent of Cordeliers (1603).

The Bibliothèque really develops under Louis XIV, time which sees many innovations: installation street Vivienne, not far from the current Richelieu site, integration of several collections of private origin (Gaston of Orleans, Michel de Maroilles, Loménie de Brienne), opening to the Engraving and the Music printed, creation of the classification of Nicolas Clement (used until in 1996), opening to the public (1692).

The 18th century is important for the library with the realization of systematic catalogs. It is at that time that the library settles Rue Richelieu, with the current site of the Richelieu site. This new establishment facilitates, starting from 1720, the frequentation of the public and the library receives the assiduous visits several of the Philosophe S of the Lumières. With the favor of the removal, the internal organization is improved with the constitution of five departments: department of the manuscripts, department of printed books, department of the titles and genealogies (integrated later into the manuscripts), department of the engraved boards and collections of prints, department of the medals and engraved stones.

Enrichments continue, as well by a better control of the registration of copyright, as by the integration of new particular collections: collection Baluze, musical collection of Sebastien de Brossard, library of Colbert.

In front of the surge of documents and the lack of place to accommodate the public, projects of new constructions advanced, the most are led being that of Etienne-Louis Boullée in 1785.

Revolution with the great evolutions of the library

The French revolution causes little wrong to the collections préexistentes, the Vandalisme having been very limited to the library of the King. The establishment takes the name of library of the Nation . Part of the team in place, shown to support the deposed mode too much, is thanked, but these dismissals do not involve too many fatal consequences. The library suffers a little the suppression from the registration of copyright in 1790, in one time when the number of books, booklets and newspapers strongly increases; but as of 1794 this obligation is restored. The Revolution is rather a period of enrichments by the integration of funds of various sources:

of Paris: the library recovered a good part of what was in the literary deposits capital, thus integrating the collections of many religious communities (Saint-Victor abbey) and part of those of the university (more 800 000 parts in all);
of the province: if the funds of the provincial literary deposits dealt most of the time with the central schools before being allotted to the communes, the Library of the Nation reserved the most remarkable parts, which were to illustrate the richnesses of France. Thus parts come from the four corners of France (Chartres, Amiens, Soissons) were found with the BN;
from abroad: progressively the revolutionary conquests, the French troops seize collections considered to be useful or prestigious. A part was returned from there to the countries concerned in 1814, but the Library kept important funds of them.

A project of transfer to the Louvre, proposed in 1802 in connection with the Stopped Chaptal, remains dead letter. With the wire of the regime changes which then the France knows, the library becomes imperial Bibliothèque then library royal , then National library in 1848, again imperial and definitively main road in 1871. The role of Joseph Van Praet, at the beginning of the 19th century is important: it expresses a great interest for the conservation. It is with him that one owes the Reserve of the rare books, which will profit from a particular treatment. In 1828, Edmé François Jomard obtains the creation of a department of the Charts and plans, installed in the Hôtel Tubeuf. The administration of the library knows several changes in first half of the 19th century, because of hesitations between a single administrator and a directory of conservatives. In 1848, the government slices in favor of the single administrator, however, the establishment still has problems of organization which encourage Napoleon III to name a commission of reform chaired by Mérimée. Work of the commission confirms the interest of the single administrator, whose capacity nevertheless is compensated by the existence of an advisory committee of conservatives. The new organization is ratified in the decree of July 14th, 1858. The architect Louis Visconti, attached to the Library in first half of the 19th century is satisfied with not very important modifications while presenting several more ambitious projects of which none is retained. On the other hand, the Library can accommodate a public more in the built buildings street Richelieu by Henri Labrouste in 1868. At the time, two rooms are opened, one for the researchers, the other for the consultation by a larger audience, thus preceding the distinction High-of-Garden/Rez-de-Jardin. The end of the century is marked by the beginnings of an important program: publication of the general Catalog of Printed the , launched by Léopold Delisle and which will take nearly one century (last volume: 1981).

Several changes intervene in the Entre-deux-guerres: opening of the Oval Room intended for the consultation of the most recent periodicals, construction of an additional building in Versailles to fight the obstruction of the stores, development of the exposures. In 1926, the finance law of April 29th makes national library a public corporation equipped with a board of directors. The same year, in September, east creates the Réunion of the national libraries of Paris gathering the BN and of the libraries hitherto independent. The Meeting of the national libraries knows several changes in its composition with the courses of the years which follow: the Library-museum of the Opera and the library of the Conservatoire associate with it. Some of the libraries which belonged to the Meeting find, during its dissolution in 1977, attached to the National library (for the Academy, only the funds old will remain finally with the BN). During the Second world war, the BN crosses one period of austerity, with the provisional transfer of part of the collections in free zone, the recourse to a temporary personnel (intellectual unemployed) and the reduction in the entries because of the paper shortage. The difficult situation does not prevent the creation of two departments in 1942: a department of the Music is founded, in particular to take account of the integration of other musical libraries, the department of the Entries is also created to receive the registration of copyright: it precedes the department of the registration of copyright. The same year, the Société of Geography deposits the majority of its collections, which represents a strong enrichment for the department of the Charts and plans. After the war, the principal building sites are devoted to the co-operation with the other French libraries (catalogs collective periodicals) and the conservation, with the development of the microfilming. The chronic lack of place makes necessary various extensions: construction of a second appendix in Versailles and a building street Louvois for the Music and the collections of recordings (1964), acquisition of the small island Vivienne (1975). In 1976, new departments are created: Performing arts, Official publications, national Record library. At the end of the Years 1960, the first tests of automation (computerization) start, in particular for the periodicals and the registration of copyright. These experiments lead to the creation of base BN Opale (today BN Opale More) in 1987. In 1981, the supervision passes from State education to the ministry for the Culture.

Towards the National library of France

The July 14th 1988, François Mitterrand announces construction and the installation of one or largest and the most modern library of the world… (which) will have to cover all the fields of knowledge, to be at the disposal of all, to use the most modern technologies of data transmission, to be able to be consulted remotely and to enter in relation to other European libraries .

The President of the Republic then orders a report/ratio with Patrice Cahart and Michel Melot. This report/ratio Cahart Melot (see bibliography) proposes various sites, including in province (Nancy, Lyon, Marseilles) and in suburbs (Saint-Denis and Saint-Quentin-in-Yvelines), but the sites Parisian seem to have the preference, with Dupleix and that which will be finally selected, in the new district of Tolbiac (XIIIe district of Paris), in the middle of the ZAC Bank-Left, then the principal sector of urban renewal of the capital. The two authors of the report/ratio also recommend to separate the funds from printed according to a chronological caesura, only the posterior works at the date of the caesura having to join the new site. This proposal involved discussions sometimes animated between partisans of the caesura in 1960, in favor of the caesura in 1945 (recommended by P. Cahart and Mr. Melot) and opponents with any cut. In the line of the presidential declaration, the report/ratio also insists on the need for integrating the computer tools, which it is of the catalogs or the digitalization of documents. Among the other subjects tackled in the report/ratio appear a better management of the registration of copyright, the need for redeploying the collections left in the old site, and the co-operation with other French libraries.

Beginning 1989 creates for itself the association for the Library of France , chaired by the journalist Dominique Jamet. In October, this association is transformed into public corporation under the name of Public corporation of the Library of France (EPBF). In addition to the management of construction, the EPBF is charged to constitute the collections of free access of the future building. The selections are not only carried out by librarians, the EPBF having engaged of other professionals (teaching in particular) and called upon advisers, in particular of the researchers. Meanwhile, in July 1989, the architectural project of Dominique Perrault, is appointed. This project is in particular characterized by four large angular towers which correspond symbolically to four open books. Each turn bears a name:

Turn of times
Turn of the laws
Turn of the numbers
Turn of the letters

Work, whose control of work is entrusted to the group Bouygues, starts in 1991 and lasts until in 1995 under difficult conditions. At the beginning of 1994, in front of the progress of the work, the BN and the EPBF amalgamate to become the National library of France . In 1995, François Mitterrand inaugurates the new building not opened yet with the public. It is the president Jacques Chirac who chairs, the December 20th 1996, the opening to the public of the new site, to which it gives the name of his predecessor; only the High-of-Garden is then open. It is only after the removal of the major part of the collections of the street Richelieu that the Ground floor opens in its turn the October 25th 1998.

The total opening of the new site makes it possible to launch new operations on the other sites which are Richelieu and the Arsenal.

Files

BnF preserves its clean Archives. For the period former to the Revolution, the files are preserved at the department of the Manuscripts. Those which are posterior on this date it are on the Tolbiac site (the request is done in room T). Apart from the clean files of BnF, files concerning the establishment are preserved at the Public records.

See too

List of the leaders of the National library of France
History of French

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