The Library of Geneva known until 2006 under the name Public and University Library (Bibliothèque publique et universitaire BPU), is one of the oldest university libraries of Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. Located in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, it was founded in 1559 as a part of the University of Geneva

University of Geneva

The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...

 by John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

, and was mentioned for the first time in 1561.

The department of incunabula and manuscripts is the most important part of the collection. It contains valuable and rare documents, posters, pictures of Geneva, maps and plans.

The collections as a whole contain more than two million volumes.

External links

• Ville-ge.ch, Site de la Bibliothèque de Genève
• Ville-ge.ch, Catalogue of papyri of the Bibliothèque de Genève