Editing National library (section)

===National libraries===

==== United Kingdom ====
[[File:Sir Hans Sloane, an engraving from a portrait by T. Murray.jpg|thumb|upright|Sir [[Hans Sloane]]'s collection of books and manuscripts was bequeathed to the [[British Museum]].]]
The first true national library was founded in 1753 as part of the [[British Museum]].
This new institution was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything.<ref name="world and its people">{{Cite book|last=Dunton|first=Larkin|title=The World and Its People|url=https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog|publisher=Silver, Burdett|year=1896|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog/page/n46 38]}}</ref> The museum's foundations lay in the will of the physician and naturalist [[Hans Sloane|Sir Hans Sloane]], who gathered an enviable [[cabinet of curiosities|collection of curiosities]] over his lifetime which he bequeathed to the nation for £20,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session1.html|title=Creating a Great Museum: Early Collectors and The British Museum|publisher=Fathom|access-date=4 July 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102202555/http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session1.html|archive-date=2 January 2010}}</ref>
[[File:Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa - panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[National Library of South Africa]], Cape Town branch]]

Sloane's collection included some 40,000 printed books and 7,000 [[manuscript]]s, as well as [[Old master print|prints]] and drawings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history/general_history.aspx|title=General history|work=British Museum|date=14 June 2010|access-date=4 July 2010}}</ref> The [[British Museum Act 1753]] also incorporated the [[Cotton library]] and the [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|Harleian library]]. These were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various [[British monarchy|British monarchs]].<ref>Letter to Charles Long (1823), BMCE115/3,10. Scrapbooks and illustrations of the Museum. (Wilson, David, M.) (2002). The British Museum: A History. London: The British Museum Press, pg 346</ref>

The first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759,<ref>[http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=33121&amid=30262261 The British Museum Opened], History Today</ref> and in 1757, King [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] granted it the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the museum's library would expand indefinitely.

[[File:The North Prospect of Mountague House JamesSimonc1715.jpg|thumb|[[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]], seat of the [[British Museum|British Library]], founded in 1753]]

[[Anthony Panizzi]] became the Principal Librarian at the British Museum in 1856, where he oversaw its modernization. During his tenure, the library's holdings increased from 235,000 to 540,000 volumes, making it the largest library in the world at the time. Its famous circular [[British Museum Reading Room|Reading Room]] was opened in 1857. Panizzi undertook the creation of a new catalogue, based on the "Ninety-One Cataloguing Rules" (1841) which he devised with his assistants. These rules served as the basis for all subsequent [[library catalog|catalogue]] rules of the 19th and 20th centuries, and are at the origins of the [[International Standard Bibliographic Description|ISBD]] and of digital cataloguing elements such as [[Dublin Core]].

==== France ====
In France, the first national library was the {{Lang|fr|[[Bibliothèque Mazarine]]|italic=no}}, which evolved from its origin as a royal library founded at the [[Louvre Palace]] by [[Charles V of France|Charles V]] in 1368. At the death of [[Charles VI of France|Charles VI]], this first collection was unilaterally bought by the English regent of France, the [[John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]], who transferred it to England in 1424. It was apparently dispersed at his death in 1435.<ref name=priebe/><ref name=ea>{{Americana|wstitle=National Library of France|inline=1}}</ref> The invention of printing resulted in the starting of another collection in the Louvre inherited by [[Louis XI of France|Louis XI]] in 1461.<ref name=staikos2012>{{Citation |isbn = 978-1-58456-182-8 |publication-place = New Castle, DE |publisher= Oak Knoll Press |year= 2012 |title = History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Petrarch to Michelangelo |author = Konstantinos Staikos }}</ref> [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] transferred the collection in 1534 to [[Fontainebleau]] and merged it with his private library.

[[File:Jacques Auguste de Thou.jpg|thumb|right|200x200px|As librarian of the {{Lang|fr|[[Bibliothèque Mazarine]]|italic=no}}, [[Jacques Auguste de Thou]] transformed it into the largest library in the world at the time.]]

The appointment of [[Jacques Auguste de Thou]] as librarian in the 17th century, initiated a period of development that made it the largest and richest collection of books in the world.<ref name=ea/> The library opened to the public in 1692, under the administration of [[Camille le Tellier de Louvois|Abbé Louvois]], Minister Louvois's son. Abbé Louvois was succeeded by the [[Jérôme Bignon|Abbé Bignon]], or Bignon II as he was termed, who instituted a complete reform of the library's system. Catalogues were made which appeared from 1739 to 1753 in 11 volumes. The collections increased steadily by purchase and gift to the outbreak of the [[French Revolution]], at which time it was in grave danger of partial or total destruction, but owing to the activities of Antoine-Augustin Renouard and [[Joseph Van Praet]] it suffered no injury.<ref name=ea/>

The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|radical phase]] of the [[French Revolution]] when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergymen were seized. After the establishment of the [[French First Republic]] in September 1792, "the Assembly declared the ''Bibliotheque du Roi'' to be national property and the institution was renamed the ''[[Bibliothèque nationale de France|Bibliothèque Nationale]]''. After four centuries of control by the Crown, this great library now became the property of the French people."<ref name=priebe>Paul M. Priebe. "From Bibliothèque du Roi to Bibliothèque Nationale: The Creation of a State Library, 1789–1793." The Journal of Library History, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Fall, 1982)</ref>

==== Spain ====

The library was founded by King [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]] in 1711 as the Royal Library or Palace Public Library. The Royal Letters Patent that he granted, the predecessor of the current legal deposit requirement, made it mandatory for printers to submit a copy of every book printed in Spain to the library. In 1836, the [[Monarchy of Spain|Crown]] transferred the library to the [[Ministry of Governance]] and it was renamed as [[National Library of Spain]]. A year later, women were allowed access to the library for the first time, after a petition from writer [[Antonia Gutiérrez]] was granted by Queen Regent [[Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies|Maria Christina]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2013/03/07/actualidad/1362683501_440362.html |title=Leer era cosa de hombres |trans-title=Reading Was a Man's Thing |first=Tereixa |last=Constenla |newspaper=[[El País]] |place=Madrid |language=es |date=2013-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311085033/http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2013/03/07/actualidad/1362683501_440362.html |archive-date=2013-03-11 |url-status=deviated |access-date=2023-09-25}}</ref>

==== Poland ====

The [[National Library of Poland]] continues the tradition of the [[Załuski Library]].<ref name="bn-history"/> The Załuski Library was opened to readers in [[Warsaw]] on 8 August 1747, thanks to [[Józef Andrzej Załuski|Józef Załuski's]] cooperation with his brother [[Andrzej Stanisław Załuski|Andrzej Załuski]], but the idea of the Library dates back to 1732 (presented in ''Programma literarium'' by Józef Załuski).<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="szwac2014" /> The library was one of the first national libraries and largest public libraries of eighteenth-century Europe.<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="kord2022" /> Following the death of its founders the library became the property of the Polish state and from 1774 was named the Library of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ({{Langx|pl|Biblioteka Rzeczypospolitej}}).<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="szwac2014" /> In 1780 the [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] granted the Library the right to receive a free [[legal deposit]] copy of every book printed in the country.<ref name="bn-history"/>  Following the failed [[Kościuszko Uprising]], on the eve of [[Third Partition of Poland]] and the collapse of Polish statehood, the Library of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was closed down and taken to [[St Petersburg]] in 1794, on the decision of Empress [[Catherine II]], where it formed the basis of the [[National Library of Russia]].<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="kord2022" />  Before taken to Russia the collections numbered about 400,000 volumes, including about 13,000 medieval and modern manuscripts.<ref name="bn-history" />

Between 1795 and 1918 no central institution existed collecting printed and handwritten
works from the lands that had once formed Poland.<ref name="mak2021" /> Some smaller libraries aimed to fill the gap it left, albeit on a smaller scale.<ref name="mak2021" /> The National Library of Poland was re-founded after Poland regained its independence in 1918, and formally opened in 1928 under the Decree of the President of the [[Second Polish Republic|Republic of Poland]].<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="bn-history" /> Following the [[Treaty of Riga]] of 1921, most of the manuscripts of Zaluski Library and a large proportion of the prints were returned to Warsaw from [[Soviet Russia]].<ref name="szwac2014" /> National Library of Poland also included the collections of other Warsaw-based libraries and the collections from [[Polish Museum, Rapperswil|Rapperswil]] and Paris created by Polish émigré communities.<ref name="bn-history" /> During [[World War II]] the most valuable part of the National Library's holdings – almost 800,000 registered items (including {{Circa|50,000}} manuscripts destroyed by German Nazis) – were lost forever.<ref name="bn-history" />