Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (Library of the Arsenal) is an important library founded in 1757 on the premises of the Arsenal in Paris , which has been part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) since 1934 as a separate department . It is located on Rue de Sully.
The library has its origins as a private library of around 50,000 volumes belonging to the passionate bibliophile, diplomat and Minister of War Antoine René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (Marquis of Paulmy, 1722–1787), who lived in the arsenal as grand master of the artillery. The arsenal was the ammunition and weapons depot near the Bastille. His collection included many medieval manuscripts and he was generous in giving scientists access. In 1786 he bought the extensive library of the Duc de la Vallière (1708–1780). Eventually he sold his library himself to the Comte d'Artois , brother of King Louis XVI. This also gave it its own library, which, like the Bibliothèque royale, was publicly accessible.
During the French Revolution, it was confiscated and expanded with manuscripts and books from looted monasteries and the archives of the neighboring Bastille. In 1797 it became a public library. After Charles Nodier became a librarian in 1824, he organized a well-known literary salon there and expanded its collections of fiction. Honoré de Balzac was one of the regular readers . You have a copy of every magazine published in Paris from 1880 to 1914. From 1900 the poet José-Maria de Heredia was the library's curator. In addition, from 1878 the writer Louis Ulbach (Ferragus) was a curator and his successor was Paul Cottin (1856-1932). The Lambert archive (fund) dedicated to Joris Karl Huysmans , the collection of the typographer Ladislas Mandel and the archives of Georges Perec and Oulipo can also be found here .
It used to be known as the Libraire de Monsieur.
Today it comprises around one million documents, 150,000 of which are dated before 1880.
Web links
- Website at the BNF
- Pavillon de l'Arsenal, actuellement bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '1 " N , 2 ° 21' 48.7" E