Free visit of the Mazarine Library

Name: Visite libre de la Bibliothèque Mazarine
Start: 2022-09-17T09:00:00+02:00
End: 2022-09-18T18:00:00+02:00
Location: Bibliothèque Mazarine

Free visit of the Mazarine Library, registered in the free visit circuit of the Institut de France.

17 et 18 septembre 2022Passé

CC-by-NC-nd Guillaume de Smedt pour la Bibliothèque Mazarine

Come discover the reading room of the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest public library in France, whose woodwork decoration has remained virtually unchanged since the middle of the 17th century. The visit will continue with an exceptional passage through the Library of the Institut de France, before joining the rest of the tour of the Institute, until the Coupole.

À propos du lieu

Bibliothèque Mazarine

23 quai de Conti 75006 Paris

Paris
Île-de-France

Today integrated into the Palais de l'Institut, the Bibliothèque Mazarine is the oldest public library in France and one of the richest. Originally the personal library of Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), it was opened to the public in 1643\. To ensure its survival, Mazarin decided to join it to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, which he founded shortly before his death. The construction of the college, on the plans of the architect Louis Le Vau, bordering the Latin Quarter and facing the Louvre, lasted about twenty years (1662-1682). The left wing was reserved for the library. The Mazarine Library has not ceased to develop since then; it remains today, more than three hundred and fifty years after its foundation, a library of study and research open to all, as well as a real museum of the book. Its reading room perpetuates the unique decor of a large library of the seventeenth century.