Seminar organized by Antoine Compagnon, Chair of Modern and Contemporary French Literature : history, criticism, theory and the Republic of Knowledge
June 12 and 19, 2023 from 3 pm to 6 pm, at the Collège de France.
Admission free without registration, subject to availability.
The period to be studied during the two seminars organized by the Collège de France and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as part of the " Passage des disciplines " program, will provide an opportunity to examine valuable elements for the cross-disciplinary administrative and scientific history of the two establishments.
1773 was the year of the " Lettres patentes du roi concernant le Collège royal données à Versailles le 16 mai 1772, registrées au parlement le 26 mars " by which the Collège royal was " agrégé " to the University of Paris. The Collège regained its autonomy in 1793, when the assembly of professors was chaired by Jérôme Lalande, professor of mathematics (1761-1807). During this period, the organization and governance of the Bibliothèque du Roi also underwent upheaval. It became the Bibliothèque nationale in 1792, then the Bibliothèque impériale in 1804, until the end of the Empire in 1815, the target date for our exploration. These name changes marked the beginning of more far-reaching questions and reorganizations, particularly concerning the Manuscript Department, the Cabinet des Estampes and the Cabinet des Médailles et Antiques, as well as the constitution of their collections. The missions, statutes and even location of the Library (planned transfer to the Louvre in 1802) were the subject of sometimes bitter discussions, which an administrative and institutional history should enable us to analyze. This research into the cross-history of the Collège de France and the Bibliothèque nationale de France is being carried out thanks to a partnership established in 2021 between the two institutions.
