Inguimbertine library

The library Inguimbertine is the classified Public library of Carpentras.

Before Inguimbertine

There were two attempts to constitute a library with Carpentras before Inguimbertine:

Georges d' Ornos, bishop of Carpentras, died in 1452, had wanted that its books are sold in order to help with the construction of a new cathedral. But one preferred soon to suspend this sale to form a public library. This was done in 1460 in the cathedral. However, this library ceased existing for reasons still badly known.

Jacques Sadolet, having been appointed bishop of Carpentras, took on board his rich person library in 1527 on a boat towards France. Unfortunately the plague condemned the ship: the collections of this large humanistic were pushed back coasts.

The library of the bishop of Inguimbert

Also the true founder of the public library of Carpentras is he the bishop Joseph-Dominique d' Inguimbert. This last, before being appointed bishop of Carpentras, was the librarian of the Corsini cardinal. He advised the purchase of the library of the cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio and took part in the classification of this library, made public in 1754. Among the famous librarians in Italy at that time, let us quote Antonio Magliabechi and Prospero Lambertini, which succeeded the pope Clément XII under the name of Benoît XIV.

Appointed bishop of Carpentras in 1735, Joseph-Dominique d' Inguimbert reported of Rome approximately 4000 volumes, the tables, the prints… The setting on sale of the library of president de Mazaugues gave the opportunity to him to enrich its library: approximately 15.000 volumes, 4.000 medals, various objets d'art and curiosity took the way of Carpentras in 1745. In 1747 it bought to the baron de Trimond, to nephew and to heir to Mazaugues, the files and minutes of correspondence of Peiresc which take part largely in famous of Inguimbertine. D' Inguimbert bought and arranged the hotel of Grown-Pomerol beside the episcopal palate to place its collections there. He requested at Benoît XIV the authorization to bequeath his foundation, and in 1746 a bubble confirmed the foundation of this “house of the Muses” (to take again a picturesque rebus placed above the door, a reed between two rats: driven - arondo - driven/ musarum domus ).

This Italian model transposed in the old capital of the pontifical State of the Comtat Venaissin is one of the originalities of the Inguimbertine library.

French revolution with the evolution of the libraries

Another originality of the Inguimbertine library, at the same time consequence of the first and related to the history of the Revolution in Comtat Venaissin, is the weakness of the contribution of the revolutionary seizures. If the majority of the classified public libraries owe their richness with the seizures of the libraries of the religious congregations, such is not the case of Inguimbertine.

The municipality moves into 1847 the collections in a private mansion in which the library, with its shelves and its classification of the eighteenth century, is still. Gifts - as that of Casimir-François-Henri Barjavel with his 10.000 volumes, tables and objets d'art -, by the deposits of the State, by acquisitions, enrich it.

This public library created before the rise of the public reading, this “house of the Muses” gathering various supports before the media libraries, accompanied creation by the popular libraries in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, accommodated the municipal files, constituted of the museums from some of preserved works (Museum Comtadin, Musée Duplessis, Musée Sobirats, Concise Musée), and makes the bet hold together what elsewhere could be divided, even opposite: funds patrimonial and public reading, libraries, files and museums.

For a few years, the municipality has launched a project of transfer of the collections within a cultural pole localized in the old Hospital of Carpentras, currently in the course of rehabilitation.

Selective bibliography

; Catalogs of the manuscripts

; Catalogs of printed books

; Catalogs of bindings

; Catalogs of the most remarkable works

Selective Webliography

the page devoted to the Inguimbertine library on the site of the town of Carpentras
the page devoted to the Inguimbertine library on the site of the Virtual library of the Mediterranean
the description of the funds of the library in the Guide of the documentary Resources in Provence-Alp-Coast of Azure
the description of the funds of the municipal files of Carpentras in the Guide of the documentary Resources in Provence-Alp-Coast of Azure
Database '' Enluminures '', on which one can see images of manuscripts preserved at Inguimbertine.

Random links: