Jean-Louis Pascal et la création de la salle des périodiques de la Bibliothèque nationale (1883-1936)

Abstract

« Jean-Louis Pascal and the creation of the periodical newspapers room at the French National Library », by Anne Richard-Bazire. The architect Jean-Louis Pascal was born in Paris in 1837. Very brilliant student of the beaux-arts school, he was educated in the atelier of Jacques Gilbert then Charles Questel, atelier had been himself the Patron during fifty years. Among his numerous creations as well in public than in private field, the construction of the periodical newspapers room at the French National Library in Paris remains as his most famous work. Designed in 1875, a time when succeeding Henri Labrouste he was the architect of the Library, Jean-Louis Pascal had to adapt the place to always increasing collections. Decided in 1878, the construction of the oval room began not before 1897 being only inaugurated after his death in 1936. Conceived at the beginning as a public room of reading, the drop of crowd lead in 1916 to change its affectation. This big oval room remains as a compromise between a classical style of architecture with, for example, columns with ionic capitals, and use of modern material such as cast iron. In that, Jean-Louis Pascal is really an architect of eclectism.