Lecture | Emmanuelle Chapron on Readers at the Royal Library of Paris
From the School of Advanced Study, University of London:
Emmanuelle Chapron | The Loan Registers of the 18th-Century Royal Library of Paris: A History of Readers, Books, and Institutions
Online, via Zoom, 4 June 2024, 5.30pm
The study of the loan registers of the Royal Library of Paris helps us to understand the use of the library and manuscripts in the 18th century, leading to a history of institutional trust and the library as archive.
In association with the History of Libraries seminar series. All are welcome; those wishing to attend should book a free ticket here.
Emmanuelle Chapron is Professor of Modern History at Aix-Marseille Université and Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris. She is a specialist of the history of the book and libraries as well as history of scholarship in early modern times, in France and Italy. Among her publications are Ad utilità pubblica : politique des bibliothèques et pratiques du livre à Florence au XVIIIe siècle (Geneva, 2008) and Livres d’école et littérature de jeunesse en France au XVIIIe siècle (Liverpool, 2021). She is the curator of the digital edition of the letters and papers of Jean Jean-François Séguier (1704–1783). She is currently working in archives in libraries from the 17th century onwards.
Lecture | Andrew Foster on Chichester Cathedral Library, 1670–1735
From the School of Advanced Study, University of London:
Andrew Foster | The Restoration and Revival of Chichester Cathedral Library, 1670–1735
Lambeth Palace Library, London, 7 May 2024, 5.30pm
For the redoubtable Dr Mary Hobbs (1923–1998), the return of Bishop Henry King’s Library marked the rebirth of Chichester Cathedral Library post 1671; yet close analysis of The Old Catalogue before 1735 reveals other stories of benefactors and books in what was quite a renaissance for cathedral, city, and the surrounding region at the end of the seventeenth century.
In association with the History of Libraries seminar series. All are welcome; those wishing to attend should book a free ticket here.
Andrew Foster was formerly Director of Research at the University of Chichester and is now an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Kent, and a Visiting Researcher with ‘Lincoln Unlocked’, Lincoln College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, an ecclesiastical historian with a special interest in the history of the Church of England c.1540–1700, a former Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society, founding chair of the Public History Committee of the Historical Association, and Literary Director of the Sussex Record Society for 33 years until 2018.
St Paul’s Cathedral Library Restored
Following a five-year restoration, the 18th-century library at St Paul’s Cathedral is once again open to researchers and tourists (look for the the special Triforium Tour). From Architecture Today (6 November 2023).
Christopher Wren, St Paul’s Cathedral Library, following restoration; completed in 1709, the library is on the Triforium level, behind the southwest tower ((Photo by Graham Lacdao for St Paul’s Cathedral).
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Completed in 1709, the library reaches two stories high and contains more than 13,000 volumes of books and manuscripts, the oldest of which dates back to 1313. Here, Portland stone panelling surround a gallery, with these panels enamoured with deep, ornate carvings. Beneath, an array of brackets supporting the gallery enjoy decoration of equal measure, this time carved out of wood. (Recent research, however, uncovered the fact that the gallery walkway is cantilevered from the wall, with the brackets being purely decorative).
Christopher Wren, Dean’s Staircase, with ironwork by Jean Tijou (Photo by Richard Holltum, from August 2007, from the website of the World Monuments Fund).
Before work began on the restoration in 2018, the most significant changes to the library were the addition of electrical lights and a heating system in the early 1900s. In fact, the cathedral nearly didn’t have a library at all, with its collection almost entirely destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Following the damage, however, Sir Christopher Wren’s Library chamber was restocked by the cathedral’s Commissioners for rebuilding St Paul’s following the damage.
The £800,000 refurbishment, funded mostly through donations and benefactors of St Paul’s, saw books cleaned, walls re-painted, a new lighting scheme put in place, new desks for readers, as well as a new display case. Work was also done to the cantilevered gallery which was showing signs of sagging. . . .
“The Cathedral Library is a remarkable room, and remains one of Sir Christopher Wren’s great achievements. It is fitting that, as we mark 300 years since his death, his Library is able to reopen after five years of painstaking restoration,” the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett said in a statement. . . .
The full article is available here»
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