The College through the centuries

16th century

In the 16th century, the University of Paris had a monopoly on teaching. Its four faculties - Theology, Law, Medicine and Arts - claimed to embrace all that was useful and lawful in terms of study and knowledge, with Latin as the only language of learning and study. The sciences, with the exception of medicine, were reduced to the quadrivium of the Middle Ages: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Its demographic weight (over fifteen thousand students), prestige and prerogatives gave it considerable power, particularly in theological debates.

But several phenomena eroded its monopoly. The Reformation and the Renaissance, which spread throughout Europe, encouraged the study of ancient languages such as Greek and Hebrew, in a move to "return to the sources" of Christian and philosophical texts. These movements were further encouraged by the development of printing, which accelerated the circulation of works, including secular ones, and of information. It was against this backdrop of intellectual effervescence and curiosity that the need for freer, more open and free education arose.

In the 1520s, humanist Guillaume Budé, bookseller to King François I, suggested the creation of a special corps of professors, inspired by the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain and, above all, the Collège des Trois Langues in Louvain, founded by friends of Erasmus. In 1530, six "royal readers" were appointed: three for Hebrew (François Vatable, Agathias Guidacerius, Paul Paradis), two for Greek (Pierre Danès, Jacques Toussaint) and one for mathematics (Oronce Finé). By the 1550s, they were teaching at the Colleges of Tréguier and Cambrai, where the Collège de France now stands. Charles IX set up a jury to examine candidates' skills. Thus, in 1567, Nicolas Goulu was judged suitable to teach Greek after being auditioned by royal readers and Pléiade poets, including Pierre Ronsard.

17th century

The royal readers see the success of their courses. The number of teachers soon doubled from the original six to twelve. However, premises were in short supply, although teaching took place mainly in the Collèges de la place de Cambrai. In 1610, Henri IV commissioned the architect Claude Chastillon to construct a new building. The initial project was to house the royal library (forerunner of the Bibliothèque nationale de France) and the teaching of royal readers. The king's assassination on May 14, 1610 did not jeopardize the project, as the foundation stone was laid by the dauphin, Louis XIII, on August 28 of the same year. However, the buildings were much more modest than planned: only one wing was erected; the Collège de Cambrai, which was to have been demolished, remained, and the royal library was not included in the plans. The fact remains, however, that the Collège is now an institution in the Parisian architectural and intellectual landscape, and no longer merely "built for men", as the humanist Etienne Pasquier put it.

The events of the "Grand Siècle" did not spare the institution, however. The Fronde (opposition to royalty by part of the nobility and the parliaments, which lasted from 1648 to 1653), then at the end of the century the war of the League, which pitted the kingdom of France against part of Europe, regularly prevented the payment of professors' salaries, and the archives bear witness to the rapid dilapidation of the buildings.

The end of the century saw the granting of the school's coat of arms.

18th century

The Collège, secure in its future, continued to develop its teaching, and in 1707 there were twenty professorships, eleven devoted to literature and nine to the sciences. After two centuries of existence, the first history of the establishment, Mémoire historique et littéraire sur le Collège royal de France, written by Claude-Pierre Goujet (1697-1767),appeared in 1758 .

Teaching conditions deteriorated, however, with the deterioration of the premises regularly denounced by the professors. Their request was finally heard by Louis XV, and the construction of a new building by Chalgrin was formalized in 1772. The foundation stone was laid in 1774, marking the start of a ten-year construction period.

Although the revolutionary period threatened the Collège de France's existence on at least two occasions, freedom of teaching, free and secular courses and the majority of professors' support for the Republic ensured the institution's continuity.

19th century

With its new premises, the Collège de France welcomed an ever-increasing number of visitors, so much so that expansion once again became essential. In the 1830s, architect Paul-Marie Letarouilly led the construction of a new wing adjoining Chalgrin's building, in the same style. Completed in 1841, it was insufficient to accommodate all of the audience. The crowds were even used as a pretext by the new government in 1852: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, after his coup d'état on December 2, 1851, used the argument of undermining public order to remove Jules Michelet, Edgar Quinet and Adam Mickiewicz from their professorships. They were not the only ones to suffer this fate: in 1864, Ernest Renan was expelled following his "opening lesson", deemed insulting by the Church, since it treated the life of Jesus as that of a man. He was finally reinstated in 1870, with the birth of the Third Republic.

At that time, the institution took on its current name. Formerly known as the Collège Royal, then the Collège Imperial, it is now known as the Collège de France.

20th century

At the turn of the century, teachers were mobilized during the Great War. Laboratories were involved in explosives research, and construction projects were suspended.

Construction resumed in the 1930s, and the school expanded with the construction of three new buildings. The first, dedicated to chemistry, was inaugurated in 1938.

The Second World War and the Occupation hit the institution hard. Some professors and staff were affected by the racial laws. Eight were deported or shot because of their status or for acts of resistance. Work resumed after the Liberation, enabling completion of the physics building in 1954 and the biology building in the 1960s.

In the second half of the century, the number of professorships exceeded fifty, a sign of success. A European Chair was created in 1989, and an International Chair in 1992, to open up teaching to foreign personalities. The century ends with the renovation of part of the historic building by architects Bernard Huet and Jean-Michel Wilmotte.

21st century

The Collège de France continues to expand its teaching offering. The creation of a website and the widespread use of video recordings have made it one of the leading French-language institutions for the dissemination of knowledge. In addition, a number of annual chairs have been created, from the Artistic Creation chair in 2004 to the Invention of Europe through Languages and Cultures chair inaugurated in 2021, as well as the Liliane Bettencourt Technological Innovation, Computer Science and Digital Sciences, Public Health, French-Speaking Worlds, Biodiversity and Ecosystems and Sustainable Common Future chairs.