Document Record

Creator

France. Bibliothèque nationale.

Title

Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des manuscrits : Collection Moreau

Identifier

lac_mikan_100396
100396
MG 7 IA 10
R11313-20-4-F
Government
History of French Canada
oocihm.lac_mikan_100396

Document source

Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Language

French

Description

The Bibliothèque nationale de France is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. It traces its origin to the royal library founded at the Louvre Palace by Charles V in 1368. Charles had received a collection of manuscripts from his predecessor, John II, and transferred them to the Louvre from the Palais de la Cité. The library grew rapidly during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, due in great part to the interest of the Minister of Finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 - 1683), who was a huge collector of books. The library moved to various locations over time and opened to the public in 1692. The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the radical phase of the French Revolution when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. Today, the library’s mission is to constitute collections, especially the copies of works published in France that must, by law, be deposited there, conserve them, and make them available to the public.
This is a collection of various documents collected by the cabinet of charters, which was established around 1764 at the instigation of Jacob-Nicolas Moreau, lawyer and historian of Finance. Cabinet charters had many employees scattered throughout France and abroad to collect documentation on the history of France. Before the Cabinet charters, some manuscripts were part of the collection of the scholar Charles-Marie Fevret Fontette (1710-1772).

URL

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_100396