Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris

Saturday, 27 December 2014 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries, Paris / Île-de-France
Reading Time:  4 minutes

Sainte-Geneviève Library © Priscille Leroy/cc-by-sa-3.0-fr

Sainte-Geneviève Library © Priscille Leroy/cc-by-sa-3.0-fr

Sainte-Geneviève Library (French: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève) is a public and university library in Paris, which inherited the collection of the Abbey of St Genevieve. The library contains around 2 million documents.

The library catalogue, executed in the thirteenth century (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 16,203, fol. 71V) listed 226 volumes. Only a few now in the collections of Library Sainte-Genevieve can now be traced to that enumeration. That manuscript inventory included collections of sermons, canon law, the works of the fathers of the church, the glosses and commentaries on the Scriptures of Rabanus Maurus and those of the Venerable Bede. The abbey had other books, bibles, missals or graduals earmarked specifically for worship. During the sixteenth century, a weakening of community and misrule resulted in the dispersal of the library’s volumes. Many manuscripts that the library of the abbey tried to recover the next century were then sold, sometimes for the value of their paper alone. Later reform resulted in the foundation of the Royal Library Sainte-Genevieve, inherited by present institution.

Reading room of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève © Marie-Lan Nguyen/cc-by-2.0-fr Abbaye Sainte-Geneviève de Paris © Simdaperce Entry Hall © Marie-Lan Nguyen/cc-by-2.5 Sainte-Geneviève Library elevation © Handbuch der Architektur, 1893 Reading Room © Marie-Lan Nguyen/cc-by-2.0 Reading Room © Marie-Lan Nguyen/cc-by-2.0-fr Sainte-Geneviève Library © Priscille Leroy/cc-by-sa-3.0-fr Henri Labrouste bust © Jospe/cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
Reading room of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève © Marie-Lan Nguyen/cc-by-2.0-fr
Between 1838 and 1850, a building for the Sainte-Geneviève Library was designed and constructed under the direction of the architect Henri Labrouste. The glass and iron reading room has been described as “magisterial” and the building itself as a seminal work in the creation of the modern library as “a temple of knowledge and space for contemplation”. The names of 810 illustrious scholars are inscribed on the building’s facade. In one scholar’s estimation:

One of the greatest cultural buildings of the nineteenth century to use iron in a prominent, visible way was unquestionably the Bibliothèque Ste.-Genevieve in Paris, designed by Henri Labrouste. He presented the design on December 19, 1839. It took six to seven years to complete the construction, from 1843–50. The large (278 by 69 feet) two-storied structure filling a wide, shallow site is deceptively simple in scheme: the lower floor is occupied by stacks to the left, rare-book storage and office space to the right, with a central vestibule and stairway leading to the reading room which fills the entire upper story. The ferrous structure of this reading room—a spine of slender, cast-iron Ionic columns dividing the space into twin aisles and supporting openwork iron arches that carry barrel vaults of plaster reinforced by iron mesh—has always been revered by Modernists for its introduction of high technology into a monumental building.

Labrouste’s structure stands at the Sainte-Genevieve hill, across the street from the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter. When developing his design, Labrouste may have added the leafy garland band above the windows on the first level exterior nearly identical to the band on the Pantheon as a gesture of respect to its neighboring monument.

Read more on Wikipedia Sainte-Geneviève Library (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.



)


Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Welcome to the fairytale land of the Brothers Grimm - The German Fairy Tale Route

Welcome to the fairytale land of the Brothers Grimm - The German Fairy Tale Route

[caption id="attachment_2404" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="German Fairy Tale Route map © deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com"][/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The route stretches over 600 km from Hanau near Frankfurt in the south to Bremen in the north, meandering through the towns and cities where the Brothers Grimm lived and worked, connecting the places and landscapes of their collected fairy tales into a route of wonders. The Fairy Tale Route offers culture and history, enchanting medieval towns of half-timbered houses, cas...

[ read more ]

Ivry-sur-Seine in the Île-de-France region

Ivry-sur-Seine in the Île-de-France region

[caption id="attachment_227247" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Town hall © flickr.com - Guilhem Vellut/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ivry-sur-Seine is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 5.3 kilometres (4 mi) from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the commune and now extends into the northern parts of Ivry. Asian commercial activity, especially Chinese and Vietnamese, has greatly in...

[ read more ]

The museum ship Balclutha

The museum ship Balclutha

[caption id="attachment_152293" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Historic ships of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park moored at Hyde Street Pier in Aquatic Park, with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the background © chris j wood/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship Balclutha, is a steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is the only square rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area and is representative of several differ...

[ read more ]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge

[caption id="attachment_186159" align="aligncenter" width="590"] East Campus, looking towards Boston Harbor © Nick Allen/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted an European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. The Institute is traditionall...

[ read more ]

Kyoto in Japan

Kyoto in Japan

[caption id="attachment_168567" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Kyoto City Hall © Tomomarusan/cc-by-2.5[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kyoto is a city located in the central part of the island of Honshu in Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years, it is now the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture located in the Kansai region, as well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. Kyoto is also known as the thousand-year capital. In 1997, Kyoto ...

[ read more ]

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem

[caption id="attachment_218730" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Calvary/Golgotha © Gerd Eichmann/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of East Jerusalem. It contains, according to traditions dating back to the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shr...

[ read more ]

Braga in northwestern Portugal

Braga in northwestern Portugal

[caption id="attachment_151341" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Town hall © Joseolgon/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Braga is a city and a municipality in the district of Braga, in the historical and cultural Minho Province. The municipality, which includes 37 civil parishes had a resident population of 182,000 inhabitants, representing the seventh largest municipality in Portugal (by population). Its area is 183.40 km². Its agglomerated urban area extends from the Cávado River to the Este River. The city was the Eur...

[ read more ]

The pilgrimage Rocamadour

The pilgrimage Rocamadour

[caption id="attachment_151038" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © François Darras[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Rocamadour is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France. It lies in the former province of Quercy. Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne, and especially for its historical monuments and its sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which for centuries has attracted pilgrims from every country, among them kings, bishops, and nobles. The town below t...

[ read more ]

The Limes Road from Rheinbrohl/Bad Hönningen on the Rhine to Regensburg on the Danube

The Limes Road from Rheinbrohl/Bad Hönningen on the Rhine to Regensburg on the Danube

[caption id="attachment_161297" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Manfred E. Fritsche[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Upper Germanic-Rhaetian boundary wall (“limes”) - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - runs from Rhineland-Palatinate through Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and into Bavaria. The German Limes Road - experience Roman history The German Limes Road is a tourist route along the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian boundary wall from Rheinbrohl/Hönningen on the river Rhine to Regensburg on th...

[ read more ]

The European Union

The European Union

[caption id="attachment_25264" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © naturalearthdata.com - Alexrk2/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), formed by the Inner Six countries in 1951 and 1958, respectively. In the intervening years the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The Maastricht Treaty established the ...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Red Deer Innkeepers Lodge © geograph.org.uk - Johnny Durnan/cc-by-sa-2.0
Theme Week Scotland – Cumbernauld

Cumbernauld is a Scottish new town in North Lanarkshire. It was created in 1956 as a population overspill for Glasgow...

Market Square © Binter
Theme Week Carinthia – Sankt Veit an der Glan

Sankt Veit an der Glan is a town and the administrative centre of the Sankt Veit an der Glan District,...

View across the Drava river towards the cross church in Perau © Hrald/cc-by-sa-3.0
Theme Week Carinthia – Villach

Villach is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It represents an important...

Schließen