Bibliothèque Mazarine, the library on quai de Conti since 1643

The Bibliothèque Mazarine, on quai de Conti, is the oldest public library in France. In 1643 Cardinal Mazarin asked Gabriel Naudé to assemble a library for him in Paris; the purchase of Canon Descordes’s collection that August was its founding act. It was open to all from that year.

Naudé bought in Flanders, Italy, Germany, England and Holland: by around 1648 some 40,000 volumes made it the largest collection in Europe. During the Fronde, Parliament had it sold in 1652; Naudé saved part of it, and François de la Poterie rebuilt it for Mazarin.

Mazarin left it in 1661 to the Collège des Quatre-Nations, which he founded by his will. Reopened in 1689 in the college’s east wing, it stayed public through the Revolution and grew from confiscated libraries. The Institut de France has occupied the buildings since 1805.

Beneath the dome of the Institut, in the 6th arrondissement, it holds about 600,000 volumes, more than 4,600 manuscripts, 2,370 incunabula including a Gutenberg Bible, and the largest collection of mazarinades in the world. Free guided tours are offered.