Our collections

In the early 1800s, Beethoven was the youngest member of Viennese musical life. Even after the birth of the rising star Rossini, Beethoven’s primacy remained intact, especially in German culture. However, in 1822, when the Swan of Pesaro arrived in Vienna for the performance of his opera Zelmira, the Viennese people eagerly awaited him, and […]

A medieval manuscript from the convent of St. Francis of Assisi on our premises! In 1960, the auction of a 13th-century manuscript containing the Latin text of Solomon’s Book of Wisdom, with an inscription referring to the “conventus beati Francisci”, attracted the attention of the library’s directors. The inscription most likely indicates the convent of […]

Acquisition of new autograph scores With over a hundred recordings of his music to date, several monographs, reissues of his compositions by leading publishers, and works featured in over 60 concerts around the world in the last two years, the Swiss composer Paul Juon (1872-1940), already a household name in his own lifetime, is enjoying […]

In the early 1980s, Jean-Marie Volet from the canton of Vaud, then a primary school teacher in St-Cergue, moved with his family to Australia. He decided to further his education by enrolling in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Western Australia in Perth. It was there, somewhat by chance, that he discovered French-speaking […]

On May 25, 2020, Georges Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American citizen, died in Minneapolis, United States of America, as a result of severe police violence. In the popular and editorial turmoil that followed this tragic event, the Antiquipop website drew my attention to a distressing reality: the link between antiquity and racism, antiquity and fascism, the […]

In one way or another, we have all been affected by the Coronavirus crisis of 2020. Social distancing, barrier gestures, confinement, etc.: none of these measures spared us. none of these measures have spared us. While our working conditions have also been disrupted by this situation, our thoughts as librarians have been enriched, somewhat unexpectedly […]