HENRI LABROUSTE AND THE LURE OF THE REAL: ROMANTICISM, RATIONALISM AND THE BIBLIOTHEQUE SAINTE‐GENEVIEVE

Abstract

The article examines Henri Labrouste's Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève in Paris (1839–52), in terms usually reserved to describe romantic literature. Using Victor Hugo's Notre‐Dame de Paris as a guiding example, the authors argue that Labrouste's appeal to the real and the rational – as opposed to the ‘eternal truths’ of academic conventions – is a rhetorical strategy developed to prise open a broader range of fictional possibilities for architecture. Through an analysis of the experience of the building as a whole that takes into account the key elements of its spaces, design and decoration, the Sainte‐Geneviève library is shown to partake in a vision of knowledge comparable to that proposed in Notre‐Dame de Paris, using alchemy as a paradigmatic model of the romantic search for truth.