Richelieu Library - Manuscripts Reading Room

The reading room of the Department of Manuscripts is accessible to users holding a Research Pass. It seats 80 people with specific equipments for readers: 5 computer stations, 1 station dedicated to audiovisual documents, 12 microfom readers, 1 video enlarger.

 

Salle du département des Manuscrits à Richelieu © Emmanuel Nguyen Ngoc / BnF

Services offered

  • Document photography: if the state of documents permits it, photography with a personal camera is authorized for private use without flash. Some documents cannot be photographed for legal reasons: seek information at the desk.
  • Access to internet, computerized catalogs, and online databases, from a personal laptop or from the room’s computer stations
  • Wood’s Lamps and illuminated tablets as well as magnifying glasses and measuring tapes are available at the desk
  • A display featuring the latest department acquisitions

conditions for Consultations

  • Only pencils and laptops are authorized.

  • Food and beverages must be consumed outside of the room

  • Mobile phones must be switched to silent mode.

  • Personal belongings must be stored in the lockers in the entry hall.

  • For documents which have been reproduced, the reproduced version will be communicated to you. Requests for the consultation of original manuscripts have to be justified in the reservation form of the document in your personal online space.

     

Book your documents online

 

Communication of documents

 
direct communication
  Time,  conditions, locations
  • Arabic
  • Archives of the BnF
  • Armenian
  • Atlases (all format except printed)
  • Coislin
  • Coptic language
  • Egyptian, Oriental scholars
  • Facsimiles
  • French 1 to 26484
  • Georgian
  • Greek; supplement-Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Japanese, Indian
  • Modern languages
  • Latin, Nal
  • Persian, Sanskrit
  • Smith-Lesouef (except Vietnamese)
  • Syriac language
  • Turkish  

Communication on the same day at the following pickup times

  • 10:30 am
  • 11:30 am
  • 2 pm
  • 3:30 pm

Documents requested after 3:30 PM will be communicated the next day at 10 am
  • Chinese 1 à 9084 (7)
  • Fom Chinois 9084 (8), see delayed communication.
 Communication in Reading Room Y (Site François-Mitterrand, Rare Books Reserve)
Communication with delay
  Time,  conditions, locations
  • Cabinet of Titles (original Pieces, d’Hozier, Dossiers bleus, Chérin, Armorial)
  • Érudits (Baluze, Bréquigny, Chappée, Clairambault, Colbert, Duchesne, Dupuy, Joly de Fleury, Moreau)
  • Provinces (Burgundy, Champagne, Flanders and Artois, Languedoc- Bénédictins, Languedoc-Doat, Lorraine, Périgord, Picardy, Touraine-Anjou, Vexin)
  • typed theses

Request deposits (in the room or online) :
- From Friday afternoon to Tuesday noon to receivethe  documents on Wednesday at 3 pm
- From Tuesday afternoon to Thursday noon to receive the documents on Friday at 3 pm
- From Thursday afternoon to Friday noon to receive the documents on Monday at 3 pm
 

 

  • Freemasonry Collection

  • New French Acquisitions 1 to 28020

  • Prints (except Rothschild Library)

     

Communication with delay
Request deposits in the rooms or online from Monday to Thursday until 5 pm to receive documents two days later at 10 am.

 
  • Chinese* woodcuts and prints. 9084 (8) and sq, except particular formats

  • - Korean documentary prints

  • Rochemonteix estampage

  • Indochinese

  • Inscriptions on Pyramids

  • Inscriptions from Cambodia

  • Inscriptions from Nepal

  • Japanese prints 500 to 3499

  • Malayo-Polynesian languages

  • Maspero

  • Mongolian language

  • Pali

  • Pelliot A and  B (except atlas)

  • Tibetan language

  • Vietnamese A, B, and C

  • Smith-Lesouëf Vietnamese

     

Communication with delay
Request deposits (in the room or remotely) :

  • From Friday afternoon to Tuesday noon to receive documents on Wednesday at 3 pm
  • From Tuesday afternoon to Thursday noon to receive documents on Friday at 3 pm
  • From Thursday afternoon to Friday noon to receive documents on Monday at 3 pm (beware: the confirmation email mistakenly lets believe that documents are received on Saturday and not Monday)

 

 

 

  • Manchu language
  • Other oriental prints (except Chinese part, Korean a,d Japanese 500-3499, see above)

 

 

Communication with delay.
Request deposits in the rooms or online from Monday to Thursday until 5 pm to receive documents two days later at 10 am.

 
particular terms of consultation
  time, conditions, locations
  • New French Aquisitions after 28021
Communication with delay and by appointment for archives still being treated. For some collections, an authorization by the donator is necessary.
  • Reserve (Orient and Occident)
  • Rothschild Libary
Communication after authorization by the director, from Mondy to friday (3 per day). The documents are communicated between 10AM and 10:30AM and between 1:30PM and 2PM
 

No communications on Saturday
Discover the Department’s Collections

A Video Presentation of the Department of Manuscripts

La salle de lecture du département des Manuscrits La Mandarine. © BnF, 2016. Durée : 4 min 40 s

The reading room of the Department of Manuscripts is one of he first rooms of the BnF to have been opend on 15 decembre 2016.
Isabelle Le Masne de Chermont, director of the Department, presents in French the history of this room and talks about the restauration.