Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, French national library in Paris. The library is a combination of the collections of the Bibliothèque du Roi (Royal Library), which was founded in 1368 by King Charles V, the library of the Orléans family, and the Bibliothèque de France (Library of France). The first two libraries were united by King Francis I at Fontainebleau, a residence of French kings in northern France, and were later transferred to Paris by King Charles IX. A 1537 decree (still in effect) requires that one copy of every work printed in France be kept on file in the national library. The merged libraries were renamed the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1795. In 1994 the Bibliothèque Nationale merged with the Bibliothèque de France to form the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

The library houses more than 10 million books and 350,000 bound volumes of manuscripts, as well as a collection of maps, coins, documents, prints, and recordings. In 1996 the library began transferring its printed material, periodicals, sound archives and audiovisual material to the location of the former Bibliothèque de France, on the Rue de Tolbiac, in Paris. The collections of manuscripts, prints and photographs, maps and plans, coins, medals and antiquities, music and Opera, performing arts remained at the location of the former Bibliothèque Nationale. The two locations are jointly administered.