Bibliothèque municipale de Besançon or Besançon municipal library is located in Eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is the first public library that was built in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...

History

The library was founded in 1694, when the Benedictine Abbot

Jean-Baptiste Boisot Jean-Baptiste Boisot (July 1638 – 4 December 1694) was a French Benedictine Abbot, bibliophile, and scholar. He founded the first French museum on his death in 1694 when he bequeathed his personal collection of artwork and manuscripts to the Be ...

(1638–1694) bequeathed his personal collections to the Abbey Saint Vincent in Besançon, under the sole condition that it would be publicly available. The collection of Boisot is exceptionally rich with manuscripts that date back to the 7th and 15th centuries. A large part of the collection came from

Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle (1486–1550) was a Franc-Comtois politician who served as a close trusted adviser to Emperor Charles V. He was made suzerain of the imperial city of Besançon and held an influential position in the Netherlands. Fro ...

and his son

Antoine Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

. In 1808, a building was established for the library on the plans of

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

architect Denis Lapret. During the French revolution confiscations were made from the religious communities and from emigrants living in the region. These were appropriated for the library. The building was finished in 1817, and officially opened on April 27, 1818. The building was extended several times up to 1839 when it took its current form, which is composed of four blocks around a central courtyard. The Ministry of Culture and Communication digitized the 167 illuminated manuscripts of the library. The library of Besançon holds more than 500,000 handwritten documents, drawings, prints, medals, stamps, and coins which make it one of the richest libraries in France.

Collection

The library contains about 1,000 incunabula and 2,800 mediaeval manuscripts. The most ancient of the manuscripts date from the 7th century, though most are from the 15th century. Several liturgical manuscripts are beautifully illuminated, especially the Psalter of Bonmont (13th century) or manuscripts illuminated for the archbishops of Besançon and Charles de Neuchâtel. The 14th-century manuscript "The Day of Judgement", catalogued as Ms. 579, contains 89 miniatures depicting the action of the play and three neumed musical pieces. Besançon BM 434 contains textbooks for

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

: book of educations of the princes, 49 miniatures, made by several artists having worked on the copy of Travels of Jean de Mandeville.Le manuscrit médiéval ~ The Medieval Manuscript
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History

Collection

See also

References

Further reading