Collaboration between the National Library and the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris
 07/02/2020

The beginning of a collaboration between the National Library of Georgia and the oldest public library in France- Bibliothèque Mazarine (The Mazarin Library) will have very fruitful results soon.

"Today we visited the ancient French Bibliothèque Mazarine. My colleague, Library Director Yann Sordet, hosted us. With me was the Ambassador of Georgia to France, Gocha Javakhishvili. The negotiations have been very fruitful: in the nearest future we will sign a Memorandum of Cooperation and create a fund for new Georgian publications. Here we came across the Georgian psalm-book printed in 1709 (Vakhtang VI printing house). Georgia only has a defective piece of this publication. As part of our agreement, the electronic version of this historical edition will soon return to Georgia",explains Giorgi Kekelidze, General Director of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. 

The Bibliothèque Mazarine is a 17th century library with an impressive collection of manuscripts and rare books, including the Gutenberg Bible. There are over 600,000 printed volumes including approximately 180,000 dated from between the 16th and 18th centuries, along with over 4000 manuscripts and over 2000 incunabula, which are basically early printed books, pamphlets or scripts.