The first catalogue of Oriental manuscripts was printed in 1739.
The library was renamed the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1795, and it benefited by the Revolutionary Confiscation of church and monasteries book collections and later by Napoleon’s acquisitions. The collections, which were estimated at about 300.000 volumes at the outbreak of the Revolution, had more than doubled by 1818. During the 19th century, the administrator Léopold-Victor Delisle organized the library’s extensive and valuable collection of manuscripts. Many new catalogues were printed.
As for printed books, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France acquires a copy of every publication printed in France. Its foreign acquisitions focus on books on the humanities. The library also has about 180.000 manuscripts.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Illustrated manuscripts from Mawarannahr in the collections of France" (Volume XXIX) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
