Conference "1873: a turning point in the history of Langues O' - It's moving!", June 5 at 6 p.m.

29 September 2023

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On September 6, 1873, a decree signed by the President of the Republic, Patrice de Mac Mahon, allocated the building at 2 rue de Lille, Paris 7e, also known as the Hôtel de Bernage, to the École des langues orientales vivantes. The school moved in at the beginning of 1874, leaving its temporary premises at the Collège de France. This move was in fact a turning point in the history of the School, which underwent a profound metamorphosis and began to equip itself with a library worthy of the name, the forerunner of the BULAC.
Mosaïques au sol de la Maison de la recherche de l'Inalco, sur le site historique de la rue de Lille, avec le monogramme des Langues orientales (LO)
Mosaïques au sol de la Maison de la recherche de l'Inalco, sur le site historique de la rue de Lille, avec le monogramme des Langues orientales (LO) © Sophie Lloyd‎

Monday June 5, 6-8pm, lecture followed by a cocktail
Auditorium du Pôle des langues et civilisations
65, rue des grands moulins 75013 Paris
Free admission subject to availability.

Inalco and BULAC are offering two lectures to take the measure of these transformations, one by Emmanuel Lozerand, head of History at Inalco, the other by Benjamin Guichard, scientific director of BULAC.

Charles Schefer and the refounding of the École des langues orientales

By Emmanuel Lozerand, chargé de mission Histoire de l'Inalco

Languages O' owes much to Charles Schefer (1820-1898). A professor of Persian appointed president of the "école impériale et spéciale des langues orientales vivantes" by Napoleon III on October 16, 1867, he remained the administrator of the "École des langues orientales vivantes" under the Third Republic, until his death in 1898.

He was the architect of a veritable refoundation of the school, whose legal status he accompanied through all its changes. In 1873, he found premises for the school in the former Hôtel de Bernage at 2 rue de Lille. Even more profoundly, he initiated new scientific and pedagogical orientations that made it an establishment open to the four "orients" of the world.

The constitution of a polyglot collection: the move to rue de Lille and the rise of the Bibliothèque des langues orientales

By Benjamin Guichard, Scientific Director of the BULAC

When, in 1868, the École des langues orientales left the grounds of the Bibliothèque impériale, it possessed only a few hundred documents. By the time Charles Schefer died thirty years later, it had amassed almost 50,000 documents, making it a benchmark institution on the map of European Orientalism. The move of the École des langues orientales to rue de Lille thus marked the true birth of its library.

These collections combine a wide variety of documents, both heritage and contemporary, reflecting the expanded range of languages taught and the École's new scientific ambitions. Above all, they are the fruit of Charles Schefer's formidable negotiating skills and diplomatic networks.

Contact: evenementiel@inalco.fr