Locations

The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève inherited the writings and collections of one of the largest and oldest abbeys in Paris. Founded in the sixth century by Clovis I and subject to the rule of St. Benedict Abbey, initially devoted to the apostles Peter and Paul, in 512 received the body of the St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. It was repeatedly plundered by the Normans in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet increased activity is visible in the early eleventh century, a movement of decadence is the cause of reform in 1148 led by the abbot of Saint-Denis, Suger, then regent of France. Particular it requires the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, now installed at the abbey until the Revolution, maintain a library and a school of copyists. The oldest known manuscript from the library of the abbey, now preserved at the Public Library of Soissons (ms 80) is an ex-libris of the twelfth century: Iste liber is Sancte Genovefa parisiensis. As was the custom in the church library, this mark of ownership is accompanied by a compulsion, threatening to curse those who would dare steal the volume or simply mask the ex-libris: Quicumque furatus eum fuerit, vel celaverit, vel ab ecclesia subduxerit, vel titulum istum deleverit, anathema sit.