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26 printed volumes and four hundred manuscripts were ready for use. The doors were thrown open, and on every Thursday, from eight till eleven and from two until five, the people were admitted freely to this the first public library in France. "It shall be open to all the world without excluding a living human soul," is Naudé's cry.

The only earlier public libraries in Europe were the Bodleian at Oxford, opened in 1603, the Angélique at Rome (1604), and the Ambrosian at Milan (1609).

The collection grew rapidly, and the resources of Paris being exhausted, Mazarin despatched