E cullezzione
Ours Collections - e cullezione
The ancient fund has been built up over the years through donations, bequests and government remittances. It has many rare editions, works by prestigious publishers and several hundred armor-bearing bindings.
Some of these collections are located on the shelves in the heritage room (approximately 18,000 books), mostly dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, while the other part is kept on reserve.
Library collections in figures
history
It's origin dates back to 1801 with the selection of 12,627 books sent by Lucien Bonaparte and André-François Miot to Ajaccio, at the request of Napoleon Bonaparte first consul.
This collection comes mainly from the various religious congregations of Paris: collections of the Priests of the Oratory, the Feuillants, the Priests of Picpus, the Augustinians, the abbeys of Saint-Victor, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, etc. Among the works from the congregations of Paris were some beautiful copies that belonged to the royal palaces of Meudon and Marly and bearing on the dishes the indication of this provenance in letters of gold. After this reception, all these books were recorded and stamped with the National Library of the Liamone. Indeed, the establishment at its origin belonged to the State, Ajaccio then being the capital of the department of Liamone. (source: Louis Campi)
When the library opened in 1868, the old collection was enriched with 1,250 volumes, bequests of the abbot and philologist Marc-Aurèle Marchi (1817); 8,130 volumes, bequests of Cardinal Joseph Fesch, uncle of Napoleon (1843), and 511 books of Corsican convents.
Other donations followed, including those of Frédéric De Mercey, Director of Fine Arts during the Second Empire (1887), Roland Bonaparte, grandson of Lucien (1888), Louis Campi, collector of the city of Ajaccio (1905), Paul Fontana, Secretary General of the Libraries and War Museum, Jean-Dominique Guelfi, journalist, and Dorothy Carrington, writer.
THE THEMES OF OUR FUND
The first inventory that was established for the registration of all the books in the collection bears the date of 8 Messidor an IX (June 27, 1801), the day of the opening of the deposit to the public. It follows from this document that the library had at that time 13 138 volumes entrusted to the custody of the Doctor Michel Ange Cunéo d’Ornano who was both principal of the college, professor of literature, and librarian.
The “methodical catalog of the municipal library of the city of Ajaccio”, this is the title of the first repertoire produced by Mr. André Touranjon, first curator of the Fesch library. In 1879, he listed 29,500 volumes or brochures and 198 manuscripts. Books are classified according to the bibliographic system most generally followed at the time, i.e. in 6 classes:
