Paris

Consultation

The Ministry’s library houses approximately 450,000 volumes covering primarily diplomacy and international relations.

Description of the collections

The old collections reflect the history of the Ministry’s library:

* Collections of the old repository of foreign affairs, repository of the Old Louvre and the Hotel of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Versailles: printed works on foreign countries, the profession of diplomacy, law, languages, with, in particular, the books of the Political Academy for the use of young diplomats, foreign legislative papers collected by posted diplomats, works on history and Germanic law purchased on the order of the king in Germany.

* Collection of Chrétien-Frédéric Pfeffel, publicist and legal advisor of the Ministry: works that entered in 1792 and 1807 mainly concerning history and Germanic law.

* Works selected by the first foreign relations librarian from the literary collections of the revolutionary sequestrations, with, in particular, works from the libraries of the Montmorency and Condé families and religious congregations in Paris.

* Acquisitions from the 19th century, the development of which meets a genuine expansion policy, with, in particular, a major collection of brochures gathered together systematically for foreign countries, international organizations and French administrations (official publications, legislative papers, statistical documents on trade, agriculture and industry).

* Acquisitions of the new "French Diplomatic Library", the more limited mission and fields of which were defined in 1890 by a library reform commission (legislation, geography and journeys, history, diplomatic papers).

* Collection of Prosper Faugère, former director of the Archives and the Chancellery (1810-1887), comprising works on history, religious philosophy and literature of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

* Collection of Baron d’Avril, diplomat and writer (1822-1904), devoted primarily to the Balkan countries and the Middle East.

* Collection of the General Library of the Moroccan Protectorate.

* Collections of French and foreign newspapers: 200 newspapers and gazettes collected by posted diplomats or acquired through subscriptions for the foreign affairs offices, including the Amsterdam Gazette (1691-1792), Leyde Gazette (1768, 1782, 1786-1787, 1789), the historic Mercure (1686-1778), Gazette de France (1631-1793) and Mercure de France (1724-1790).

The library is currently growing at a rate of more than 2,000 titles a year, covering all the Ministry’s areas of competence:

* Works on international relations, diplomacy, French legislation, foreign legislation, international law, maritime law, consular law, economics, history, geography and languages.

* Collection of periodicals: approximately 500 newspapers and journals, including 140 current subscriptions.

* French and foreign diplomatic papers (from Great Britain, the United States, Germany and Italy, in particular)

* Collections of French and foreign directories, dictionaries.