Posted on Dec 10, 2019 2020 at 8:25
In this digital age, asserting the modernity of books might seem incongruous. However, it is this adventure of writing that the city of Troyes wishes to keep alive. It must be said that in the long history of print, the city occupies a central place. Isn’t it, after all, the cradle – claimed at least – of the famous Chrétien de Troyes, considered the father of the modern novel?
From the mid-14th century, the first industrial paper productions saw the light of day there. Like the famous “blue booklets”, the first inexpensive books, easily distributed with their reduced format of 12 x 7 cm or 22 x 15 cm. By thus creating the ancestor of pocket books, the city wrote the beginning of the history of popular French publishing, which is still so dynamic today.
Successful training in book professions
This is evidenced by the success of the book training courses offered on the Comtes de Champagne campus, the branch of the University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne (URCA). This year, around thirty students have been selected to join the professional license “Libraries, museums and cultural mediation” or the Master “Heritage and Museums, Valorisation of Textual Heritage”.
In both cases, the objective is to train professionals, able to respond to the contemporary challenges that impact the world of media libraries, museums and cultural institutions in general.
The Jacques Chirac Media Library, in Troyes, houses more than 400,000 documents, 50,000 works, including 1,700 manuscripts from the Middle Ages.Carole Bell / Troyes Champagne Métropole
Modern publishing
Locally, this modernity of the sector is embodied in the contemporary facade of the Jacques Chirac Media Library, in the heart of the city. Imagined in the early 2000s by Dominique Lyon and Pierre du Besset, it houses more than 400,000 documents, 50,000 works, including 1,700 manuscripts from the Middle Ages.
Behind its glass facade – awarded a prestigious silver square in 2002 – hides the first collection of French medieval archives, including the manuscripts of the Abbey of Clairvaux. An exceptional heritage, registered since 2009 in the Unesco Memory of the World register, which is not only reserved for experts and researchers. In 2015, on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the famous abbey, the 500,000 color pages of the medieval collection have been digitized and put on line in a virtual library, accessible to all.
A future press center?
Another very innovative project is also in preparation: the installation of the “press center” that the National Library of France wishes to relocate outside Paris.
Supported by the Grand-Est region, the departments of Aube and Haute-Marne, the Chaumont-Troyes-Sens agglomeration communities and the Bar-sur-Aube community of communes, this project would represent some 70 million dollars. euros of investment. It would give a new vocation to the Clairvaux prison, which is scheduled to close in 2022. The city of Troyes and Troyes Champagne Métropole have also declared their candidacy to host the pole. A way of writing, in connection with the secular tradition, a new page for the territory.
–
