The National Library of France 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 first librarian of record was Claude Mallet, the king's valet de chambre, who made a sort of catalogue, ''''. Jean Blanchet made another list in 1380 and Jean de Bégue one in 1411 and another in 1424. Charles V was a patron of learning and encouraged the making and collection of books. It is known that he employed
Nicholas Oresme,
Raoul de Presles, and others to transcribe ancient texts. At the death of
Charles VI, this first collection was unilaterally bought by the English regent of France, the
Duke of Bedford, who transferred it to England in 1424. It was apparently dispersed at his death in 1435.
Charles VII did little to repair the loss of these books, but the invention of printing resulted in the starting of another collection in the Louvre inherited by
Louis XI in 1461.
Charles VIII seized a part of the collection of the kings of
Aragon.
Louis XII, who had inherited the library at
Blois, incorporated the latter into the
Bibliothèque du Roi and further enriched it with the
Gruthuyse collection and with plunder from
Milan.
Francis I transferred the collection in 1534 to
Fontainebleau and merged it with his private library. During his reign, fine bindings became the craze and many of the books added by him and
Henry II are masterpieces of the binder's art. 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. After the establishment of the
French First Republic in September 1792, "the Assembly declared the ''
to be national property and the institution was renamed the Bibliothèque Nationale''. After four centuries of control by the Crown, this great library now became the property of the French people." A new administrative organization was established.
Napoleon took great interest in the library and among other things issued an order that all books in provincial libraries not possessed by the
Bibliothèque Nationale should be forwarded to it, subject to replacement by exchanges of equal value from the duplicate collections, making it possible, as Napoleon said, to find a copy of any book in France in the National Library. Napoleon furthermore increased the collections by spoil from his conquests. A considerable number of these books were restored after his downfall. During the period from 1800 to 1836, the library was virtually under the control of
Joseph Van Praet. At his death it contained more than 650,000 printed books and some 80,000 manuscripts. By 1920, the library's collection had grown to 4,050,000 volumes and 11,000 manuscripts. ==Richelieu site==