(1461–1483) issued decrees that stabilized the library.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, as Louis XIV’s controller and
minister of finance, moved some of the royal library
contents to rue Vivienne in Paris, which is the present
day site for the BnF Richilieux site.
The library continued to expand, and during the
twentiethcentury,facedlackofspacefor collections,
ever more acute problems of conservation, and
rapidly increasing demand by readers and research-
ers. At the end of the century, the need for additional
space was addressed by the construction of an addi-
tionalsitefortheBnF,consistingofanesplanadeand
four impressive towers. The public reading rooms in
this new Bibliothe`que Franc ̧ois-Mitterrand at Tol-
biac in the 13th arrondissement Paris opened in
December 1996, and in October 1998, the opening
of the research library finally brought this major
project to completion.
The abundant material in the special collections of
the BnF—manuscripts, engravings, photographs,
maps and plans, music, coins, medals, antiquities,
and material on the performing arts—remains with-
in theRichelieu library, to bereorganized withlarger
stockrooms and reading rooms. All special collec-
tions have been reorganized into five departments,
including prints and photographs.
It is generally considered that the Cabinet Photo-
graphique, or Prints and Photographs Department
of the BnF, thusly named in 1976, was founded in
1667, with 120 engravings and drawings from the
Abbe ́de Marolles collection. The department began
to receive legal deposit prints in 1638, while succes-
sive gifts, bequests, and purchases steadily increased
the size and importance of the collection, numbering
at the turn of the twentieth century from 2 to 3
million photographs. The department’s mission is
to conserve images that can be reproduced in multi-
ple copies, and thus photographs are but one of
many mediums that are collected.
Dating from a 1537 decree by Francois I, ‘‘depot
legal,’’ or legal deposit, required that all printers and
booksellersdepositacopyofanyprintedmatterwith
theroyallibraryasalegalorcopyrightdeposit.Legal
deposit provisions were considerably improved and
reinforced in 1925, applying this obligation to both
printers and publishers, which was successively
extended to cover imported books and other materi-
als including photographs. Thus, with certain stipu-
lations,Frenchphotographersarerequiredbylawto
have a copy of their photographs in the BnF collec-
tion. Obviously, the sheer volume of photographic
productioninFranceprohibitsthedemocraticappli-
cation of this law. In practice, the Curator of Photo-
graphy at the BnF must monitor and solicit work
deemed appropriate for the national collection.
Photography has been in the forefront of the
collection from an early date, when photographers
began voluntarily depositing legal deposit copies
in 1851. Most initial attention to photography did
not concern itself with the photograph as a work
in its own right, but with the photograph only as
a subject matter information source. This policy
for collecting continued until the 1940s when a
growing awareness of the photograph as art
allow new approaches to photographic collection
and exhibition.
The department holds an impressive collection,
including collections of nineteenth century masters,
as well as works by Euge`ne Atget. The work of
contemporary photographers is particularly well
represented with a collection of 100,000 prints.
Chief curator for prints and photographs from
1963–1998, Jean-Claude Lemagny, acquired works
by contemporary photographers through dona-
tions, purchases, and under the terms of ‘‘depot
legal.’’ Largely due to his diligent work, the BnF
houses one of the most important photography col-
lections in the world. After Lemagny’s retirement in
1999,PhillippeArbaizarwasappointedchiefcurator
of photography.
Significant twentieth century acquisitions include
50,000 prints from the Nadar study collection that
were purchased in 1949. In 1961, 200,000 prints
from four major French press agencies were ac-
quired (Rol, Meurisse, Mondial, SAFARA). The
department acquires works from two to three hun-
dred contemporary photographers a year. From
1986 to 1996, for example, the collection grew by
over 46,000 photographs. As a library and not a
museum collection, the department is able to collect
from the general and vast world of photography,
building a diverse body of work by both French and
international photographers.
The Prints and Photographs department at the
BnF has a reading room where original photo-
graphs from the collection can be accessed. Staff is
available for guidance and, as a matter of library
policy, even principle curators are available for con-
sultation to the public on a regular basis. Addition-
ally, works from the collection are exhibited on a
regular basis in the Galerie Colbert, Passage Col-
bert 2 rue Vivienne. Named after the seventeenth
century minister who shaped the BnF, the Galerie
Colbert has been an experimental exhibition venue,
striving to establish an appropriate setting for the
exhibition of contemporary photography. The gal-
lery has one wall of windows that face directly onto
the Passage Colbert. The exhibitions are accompa-
nied by a text usually written by the Curator of
Photography. Photography exhibitions at GalerieBIBLIOTHE`QUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE