The Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue

The BnF Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue contains descriptions of manuscripts, drawings, and archival fonds on various media held by several departments, as well as descriptions of the Bibliothèque’s institutional archives since the 17th century.

This catalogue is exclusively in French.

 

The BnF archives and manuscripts catalogue’s contents

For the Department of Manuscripts

  • All the collections of manuscripts and archival fonds.

For the Department of Performing Arts

  • The fonds of personalities (authors, directors, actors, set designers, costume designers, etc.) and collectors and institutions in the entertainment world (companies, theatres, etc.) collections of manuscripts (Auguste Rondel collection, contemporary series of dramatic texts, critical texts, and correspondence).

For the Department of Sound, Video and Multimedia

  • The Department’s founding sound fonds (Spoken Word archives, Musée de la Parole et du Geste, National Sound Archive), as well as ethnomusicology, linguistics and sociology fonds, etc., on loan from institutions and collectors.
  • The “Charles Cros” collection of sound and image recording and playback devices.

For the Department of Music

  • The music archival fonds.

For the Department of Coins, Medals and Antiques

  • The collections of plates and drawings.
  • The manuscripts catalogues.

For the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal

  • All the manuscripts conserved.
  • The Archives of the Bastille.
  • Private archival fonds, including the Oulipo group’s archive on loan.

For the Rare Books Reserve

  • The archival fonds of 20th- and 21st-century artists’ book publishers.
  • The archival fonds of 20th- and 21st-century graphic designers.

For the BnF’s institutional archives
The archival fonds produced by:

  • The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).
  • The Établissement Public pour la Bibliothèque de France (EPBF).
  • The Bibliothèque nationale (BN) from the 17th century (Bibliothèque royale et impériale).
  • The Réunion des Bibliothèques nationales.
  • The Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal.
  • The Joie par les Livres association.
  • The architects attached to the Bibliothèque nationale’s buildings.

BnF Archives and manuscripts also contain descriptions of documents conserved in other digital libraries in Gallica (Gallica Vanilla websites, collective portals such as Libraries of the Middle East, Europeana Regia and Roman de la Rose.).

More information on BnF Archives and manuscripts catalogue

Other online catalogues list BnF manuscripts