Collections
Scientific archives and rare books
Scientific archival collections
This non-exhaustive list represents the archival collections currently being processed. Those are kept in Salle Paul Belgodère and are only accessible upon justified request, and after approval by the person in charge of the library.
Born August 7, 1889 in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine) and died October 4, 1969 in New York (United States of America). He is mainly known for his work in quantum mechanics and solid state physics. He has worked on wave theory and information theory.
He is the heir of a great line of scientists (his father and his grandfather occupied before him a professorship at the Collège de France), Léon Brillouin was the son of Marcel Brillouin, the grandson of Éleuthère Mascart and the great-grandson of Charles Briot.
Born May 12, 1845 in Vignot (Meuse) and died January 16, 1922 in Kensington (England). He is a polytechnician and officer, engineer commander, he is best known for his work on the triangle's modern geometry with Émile Lemoine and Joseph Neuberg in the years 1870-1880.
We owe him the construction of the Brocard point, circle, line and angle, which possess very specific properties. He was also interested in meteorology, karstology and caving.
He was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur and obtained the French academic palms.
Born December 19, 1854 and died June 16, 1948 Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle). He is a French mathematician specializing in number theory.
Member of the Société Mathématique de France, he has written numerous articles in L'Enseignement Mathematique, the Nouvelles Annales de Mathématiques and several other French and international journals.
In 1949, Paul Belgodère (then head of IHP's library), acquired the significant library and archives of André Gérardin, accumulated in Nancy.
Born December 19, 1854 in Saint-Martin-lès-Melle (Deux-Sèvres) and died June 16, 1948 in Paris. He is a French mathematician and physicist.
Rare books
Among the works from the 17th century, our vault holds titles by Kepler, Francois Viete, Descartes, Cavalieri and Huygens. As for the 18th century, we preserve the works of Daniel Bernoulli, Isaac Newton, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Leonhard Euler, and Condorcet.
The oldest book is Oronce Fine's Commentary on the first six books of Euclid's geometry, printed in 1536.
These monographs are not directly accessible to the public. To consult a rare book, you must first request it through the library staff.
You must follow the necessary precautions when handling those items.