Mazarine Library
Cardinal Mazarin not only bequeathed part of his wealth to finance building the "College of the Four Nations", he also bequeathed his 40,000 books and thus created the oldest public library in France, going back to 1643.

Today, the collection contains 200,000 old and rare books as well as 400,000 historical documents from the middle ages through the 18th century.

Some of the treasures are 12 notebooks from Leonardo da Vinci which were donated to the library by Napoleon and a beautiful celestial globe by Italian cartographer, cosmographer and atlas publisher Vincenzo Coronelli.