Orléans City Library

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The media library of the Orléans City Library, inaugurated in 1996 by François Mitterrand , was designed by the architects Pierre du Besset and Dominique Lyon.

The Orléans City Library, founded in 1714, has a total of 630,000 items, including manuscripts dating back to the 9th century from the holdings of the former Fleury Abbey . The library is divided into a media library , six locations with reference holdings spread over the city of Orléans , an art museum and several collections, etc. a. to Jeanne d'Arc and Charles Péguy .

history

The establishment of the city library was made possible by a foundation of law professor Guillaume Prousteau from the University of Orléans , which comprised 4,000 volumes. The foundation made it a condition that the holdings must be accessible to the public and that the administration must be carried out by the Mauriners of the Bonne-Nouvelle monastery in Orléans. The very extensive deed of foundation laid down how the library was to be organized. It describes how the stocks are to be stored, increased and maintained. Even the opening times were set precisely. The aim of the library, according to Prousteau, should be to provide the poor schoolchildren with secular and spiritual books that they cannot afford for themselves. In addition, it should also be open to strangers and everyone else.

In 1742, eight handwritten volumes by Robert Hubert came into the possession of the city library, who systematically recorded the genealogies of a total of 950 families in the province of Orléans in the second half of the 17th century . This material was later analyzed by Charles de Vassal and compiled in tables in 1862. On this basis, a genealogical database could later be created, which is now available on the website of the city library.

Fleury Abbey was dissolved during the French Revolution in 1790 . At that time there were only ten monks in the monastery, who managed a remnant of the once famous monastery library, which had been clearly decimated in the centuries before. After the dissolution, it was first taken to Gien and shortly afterwards taken up by the Orléans City Library, which received 239 volumes. Curiously, however, the manuscript Miracula Sancti Benedicti , which was kept in the shrine of St. Benedict, was overlooked . This was not to be accepted until 1906 in Orléans.

In 1820 A. Septier compiled a catalog of the manuscripts kept in the city library. However, this catalog had not inconsiderable gaps. In 1842, Guglielmo Libri visited the city library in his capacity as Inspecteur des Bibliothèques publiques . Libri found out that quite a few valuable manuscripts were missing from the catalog and took this opportunity to steal them inconspicuously. He later sold a large part of it to Lord Ashburnham. As early as 1848 rumors arose about possible thefts by Libri, which prompted Libri to flee to England. After the death of Lord Ashburnham, the heirs sold the parts acquired from Libri to the Laurenziana . Only after extensive research by the librarian Léopold Delisle was it possible to buy back the parts from France, including the holdings from Orléans. You have been in the French National Library ever since . Today 221 of the total of 304 surviving manuscripts from Fleury Abbey are still kept in the city library.

Numerous other manuscripts and autographs found their way into the library. In 1905 the handwritten memoirs of the former head of the Paris police ( lieutenants généraux de police ) Jean-Charles-Pierre Lenoir (1732–1807) with extensive historical material from the time of the Ancien Régime and later under Napoléon Bonaparte came into the possession of the library. In 1909 Paul Guillon donated his collection of documents and maps for navigation on the Loire from the 18th to 20th centuries to the library. The library of the Union of German Students ( La Natione Germanique ) of the University of Orléans, which has 300 volumes dating back to the 16th century, was also taken over.

literature

  • Marco Mostert: The library of Fleury: A provisional list of manuscripts . Hilversum Verloren Publishers 1989, ISBN 90-6550-210-6 .
  • Aurélie Bosc, Marie Maignaut, Anne Monginoux: Manuscrits précieux de la bibliothèque d'Orléans . September 2006. PDF

Web links

Commons : Orléans City Library  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ As of 2008, see archived copy ( memento of the original from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orleans.fr
  2. ↑ See the first page of the article by Aurélie Bosc et al
  3. ↑ See page 8 in the article by Aurélie Bosc et al
  4. ↑ See pages 32 and 33 in the book by Marco Mostert.
  5. ↑ See page 2 in the article by Aurélie Bosc et al
  6. ↑ See page 9 in the article by Aurélie Bosc et al
  7. ↑ See page 11 in the article by Aurélie Bosc et al

Coordinates: 47 ° 54 ′ 26 ″  N , 1 ° 54 ′ 1 ″  E