The “Bibliothèque Méjanes” is the municipal library of Aix-en-Provence, in France. Home to about 60,000 documents that make up mediaeval works from between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and whose entrance is a preciousness for every lover of letters.
The Méjanes library is the classified municipal library of Aix-en-Provence. It is located in the city center, at 8-10, rue des Allumettes. Inaugurated on November 16, 1810, in the premises of the town hall, she moved in 1989 to a former match factory. Since 1993, it is the heart of the City of the Book, which brings together in the old factory the library, associations and the university institute of technology Métiers du Livre of the University of the Mediterranean.
The Méjanes library has its origins in the rich library of Jean-Baptiste Marie de Piquet, Marquis de Méjanes, who has held several posts of administrator of the city and the province of Aix-en-Provence but was mainly a great bibliophile. When he died in 1786, he left his library (nearly 80,000 volumes) to the States of Provence, “under the condition of having an open library in the city of Aix for the benefit of the public for which it will be intended And stipulating that books can not be lent. The same year “the general assembly of the communities of Provence accepts the legacy of the library to the conditions expressed in the will, and appoints an architect, J. A. Raymond, to arrange a house still to acquire. In the meantime, the books will be transported to City Hall. The administrators take care of implementing the will of the testator and bring his library together. During the Revolution, like all institutions of the Ancien Régime, the states of Provence are abolished; the library becomes a revolutionary deposit. This deposit is however not joined to that of Marseille (which is at the origin of the library of Marseille); he stays at Aix City Hall and even gets rich with several confiscated libraries.
The library of Aix opens to the public in 1810. Among its readers one can find the young Adolphe Thiers ( Historian and president of the Republic), who, then law student, frequent it assiduously. It was enriched in the nineteenth century subscriptions of the state, but also donations. Some acquisitions are being carried out, such as that of a part of the cabinet of presidents Jules-François-Paul Fauris of Saint-Vincens and Alexandre de Fauris of Saint-Vincens.
In the twentieth century, the library experiences periods of prosperity, but also of abandonment: in the interwar period, the inspector Pol Neveux thus comes every year to the library to help its maintenance and to obtain at least that the broken windows are replaced. The Méjanes library remained at City Hall until 1989. It then moved into the former 9,000 m² match factory, which became the Cité du Livre four years later. Annexes were opened: the Two Ormes, the Halle aux Grains and Li Campaneto, and another, disappeared, the bastide Jourdan.
Today the Méjanes Library has two annexes, the Library of the Halle aux grains and the Deux Ormes library; it has also kept a mobile library that serves several outlying areas of the city.
The Méjanes library consists of several services and several reading rooms.
Classification of Library: Public Library (Open to all)
Internet access available: Yes – Library Terminal: Register with Library Clerk to use
Hours of Operation:
From Tuesday to Saturday from 14h to 19h
Approximate date of opening.: 11/16/1810
Library Website:
http://www.citedulivre-aix.com/
Activities in the area:
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Economic accommodation