13. Bibliothèque Impériale.
Place Louvois. Fontaine Molière.
The imperial library has of late years been accessible
exclusively to those who desire to study in the reading-rooms.
The collection of antiques (p. 100) alone is at present open to
the public. The old building is in process of being demolished
and re-erected, a magnificent new reading-room will be added
and the interior considerably enlarged.
The entrance is in the Rue Richelieu 58, contiguous to the
small Place Louvois, in which the Grand-Opera formerly stood.
After the assassination of the Duc de Berry by Louvel, which
occurred here Feb 13th, 1820, as the audience was quitting the
opera, the building was demolished and the construction of a
chapelle expiatoire commenced on the site. This was still unfinished
when the events of 1830 occurred, after which a Fountain
from designs by Visconti was erected on the spot; the four supporting
figures represent the four principal rivers of France, the
Seine, the Loire, the Saone and the Garonne. In 1859 the Place
was furnished with trees and converted into a square.
The public Library, once Bibliothèque du Roi or Royale, in
1792 and 1848 Bibliothèque Nationale, and during the reign of
Napoleon I. and again under the present régime Bibliothèque Impériale,
is probably the most extensive in the world. The vast
building which contains it occupies a considerable portion of four
streets, in front the Rue Richelieu, in the rear the Rue Vivienne,
N. the Rue Colbert and S. the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs.
Part of the building, which is a gloomy and unsuitable receptacle
for so noble a collection, was once the palace of Cardinal
Mazarin (d. 1661), the all-powerful minister of Louis XIII. and
Louis XIV.
A staircase to the r. in the court ascends to the library.
The number of books (5,000,000) and MSS. (200,000) is so
immense that the book-cases containing them would, if placed in
a continous line, extend to a distance of upwards of 20 M. The
books themselves are almost invariably copies of the rarest and
choicest editions, and are carefully bound. The Geographical
Collection contains 300,000 maps, plans etc., the topography of
Paris alone occupies 56 large folios. The Collection of Engravings,
to the r. on the ground-floor, consists of 8000 vols. and
upwards of 1,300,000 plates. The present edifice has been
found totally inadequate for so vast a collection and is now
undergoing extensive alterations.
According to the organization of Aug. 23rd, 1858, the library
contains four different departments: 1. Département des Imprimés,
Cartes et Collections Géographiques; 2. Département des Manuscrits;
3. Département des Médailles et Antiques; 4. Département des Estampes. During the last few years upwards of 50,000 fr.
have been annually expended in the formation of catalogues alone.
The first five volumes of the general catalogue, completed in
1855, hardly contain one half of the works on the history of
France. Persons desirous of consulting a book are required
to write down the title of the work, as well as their name
and address; every facility will then be afforded them by the
librarians.
The Cabinet des Médailles et Antiques is open to the public
on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 to 3 o'clock (entrance in the
Rue Richelieu, the door beyond the fire-engine station when
approached from the Boulevards, the first when approached from
the Palais Royal; visitors ring). It contains a valuable collection
of Coins, Medals (150,000) and Antiques, interesting Greek,
Roman and Egyptian curiosities, Babylonian cylindrical blocks of
marble inscribed with cuneiform characters, probably employed
as amulets, a vast number of seals, cameos, ornaments, vases,
richly decorated weapons etc. The arrangement of the collection
is still incomplete. In the walls of the entrance-hall and staircase
Roman inscriptions are immured. To the l. is the principal
saloon, near the middle of which is a glass cabinet containing the
Apotheosis of Augustus, the gem of the entire collection and the
largest cameo in the world, the sardonyx being nearly 1 ft. in
diameter; among the fifteen different figures are Augustus, Æneas,
Julius Cæsar, Drusus, Tiberius, Livia, Agrippina etc. It was
formerly preserved in the treasury of the Sainte Chapelle (p. 96),
and was erroneously believed to represent a triumphal procession
of Joseph in Egypt. A smaller cameo represents Germanicus
borne off by an eagle (Apotheosis of Germanicus). For full
particulars the visitor should consult the
Catalogue général et
raisonné des pierres gravées (not, however, of the medals)
de la
Bibliothèque Impériale, which may be purchased in the room for
3 fr. 50 c.
In a glass cabinet are preserved some interesting relics from
the tomb of king Childeric (d. 481) in the church of St. Brice
at Tournai in Belgium, which was discovered and opened in 1655.
A number of small silver images are also preserved here, together
with 70 other relics, discovered at Berthouville, in the department
of the Eure, dating from the period of the first Roman emperors
and believed to have appertained to the treasury of the
temple of Mercury at Canetum.
The agate cup of the Ptolemies, formerly in the treasury of
St. Denis, with carved representations of the mysteries of Ceres
and Bacchus. Vases of embossed silver. A Roman golden dish,
on the margin the family of the Antonines. A golden sacrificial
cup, discovered in 1744 near Rennes in Bretagne, representing
the drinking contest of Bacchus and Hercules, on the margin
16 golden medallions of emperors and empresses. A vase of the
15th cent. with an inlaid cross. A small bust of Achilles.
A silver disc, 26 inches in diameter, erroneously termed the
"Bouclier de Scipion"; the reliefs represent the abduction of Briseïs
by the messengers of Agamemnon. This relic was discovered
in the Rhone near Avignon in 1658. The so-called "Bouclier
d' Annibal" is undoubtedly a modern imitation.
The "Monument Babylonien", an oval meteorite engraved with
cuneiform and other characters, was found near Bagdad.
Opposite to the principal saloon is the Salle du Duc de Luynes,
exclusively devoted to objects presented to the library by the
duke, a most zealous promoter of antiquarian research. It contains
a number of interesting ancient coins.
At the upper end of the Rue Richelieu which extends between
the Boulevard des Italiens and the Rue de Rivoli, a distance of
about ¾ M., at the corner of the street, is situated the Fontaine
Molière, erected to the memory of the celebrated dramatist Molière,
who died in 1673 in the house opposite (No. 34). The
monument, which was placed here in 1844 at an expense of
168,000 fr., is in the Renaissance style, from designs by Visconti.
Molière is represented in a sitting posture, in an attitude of meditation;
below are two figures emblematic of the humorous
and serious character of his plays, furnished with scrolls on which
the names of all Molière's works are inscribed in chronological
order. Inscription: A Molière né à Paris 15 Janvier 1622 et
mort à Paris 17 Février 1673. Souscription Nationale.
