Autore
Chapron, Emmanuelle

Titolo
Bibliothèques publiques dans la France des Lumières
Periodico
Studi storici
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 1 - Pagina iniziale: 73 - Pagina finale: 95

This article examines a little-known phenomenon, one that is inconspicuous yet massive at the same time: the founding of «public» libraries in France before the Revolution, i.e. libraries that were open at fixed times to an undifferentiated public, regardless of the legal status of the collection, which could be owned by a municipality, a learned academy, a university or an ecclesiastical institution. While these institutions were not necessarily hotbeds of the Enlightenment, they are hypothesised to have played a part in the profound cultural changes that underpinned it, by establishing a public reading space in the heart of the city. The article looks at the time of their foundation, the way in which a «public service» was developed and experienced on a day-to-day basis at a time when, if not the term, then at least the idea of it was taking hold, and the identity of the public (traditionally the great forgotten figure in the history of libraries) and the uses they made of the collections.



SICI: 0039-3037(2025)1<73:BPDLFD>2.0.ZU;2-2
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.7375/116344
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7375/116344

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