Written heritage

The University has several major heritage or precious funds located in the Ramon Llull building.

  • The Jean Cocteau Fund

This fund is the result of a donation made to the University in 1989 by Édouard Dermit, the poet's adopted son and sole legatee (20th century Study Centre), through Pierre Caizergues, professor at Paul-Valéry University. Other donations have enabled the fund to be constantly enriched, along with a policy of buying from public auction rooms or booksellers, with the financial support of the Jean Cocteau Committee, chaired by Pierre Bergé.

This particularly rich fund has been used as a reference for Jean Cocteau, unique and multiple site by Rirra 21 research laboratory 

In 1995, a Mireille Havet collection, resulting from a donation made by Mrs Dominique Tiry, Ludmila Savitzky's legal successor, was deposited at the University Library of Montpellier, then annexed to the Jean Cocteau collection.

  • The Mediterranean Heritage collection 

The Mediterranean Heritage collection includes the Emmanuel Roblès fund, along with the writer's personal collection; the Armand Guibert fund, including his archives and manuscripts; the Maurice Monnoyer collection, based on the weekly magazine l'Effort Algérien; and, the Jean-Pierre Millecam collection, made up of archives and manuscripts.

  • The ancient collection (prior to 1830)

The ancient collection of the University Library of Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences is composed of about 4,000 volumes dating from before 1830, including about twenty works by Erasmus (six published during his lifetime, editions from 1523 to 1529), about fifty 16th century Venetian works, and about twenty books on the history of the city, several works by R. Llull (who gave his name to the University library on the route de Mende campus), rare editions of works by Guillaume Budé, Théodore de Bèze, La Rochefoucauld, Montaigne, La Bruyère, Leibniz, Marivaux, Fénelon, Bossuet, Boileau, Corneille, Diderot, Pascal, Machiavelli, Scarron, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Maurepas and Kant..

  • The Charles Renouvier collection

Charles Renouvier was a French philosopher, born on the 1st January 1815 in Montpellier (died on 1st September 1903, in Prades). Thanks to the descendants of Louis Prat (1861-1942), disciple and universal legatee of Charles Renouvier, the collection was donated in 1983 to the University Library of Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences by Gérard Pyguillem (1920-2001), and in 2002, by Jean-Claude Richard, depositary of the archives belonging to Gérard Pyguillem. The collection includes the printed works of Charles Renouvier and Louis Prat, and Renouvier's rich correspondence with nearly 200 correspondents from France (including Bergson), Switzerland, Italy and the Anglo-Saxon world, between 1860 and 1903.

  • The Roman Language Society collection

The Roman Language Society collection includes manuscripts and works found today in the libraries of Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences in Montpellier.

The Roman Language Society collection of the PVU library of Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences, includes 87 manuscripts in 48 volumes. They include 19th century Occitan poetry, Catalan fables and Provençal comedies from the same period.

  • The Georges Vacher de Lapouge Fund

Count Georges Vacher de Lapouge, born on 12th December 1854 in Neuville-de-Poitou (Vienne), (died on 20th February 1936, in Poitiers (Vienne)) is a French anthropologist. This fund was donated in 1978 by Geoffroy de Lapouge, grandson of Georges Vacher de Lapouge. The fund is of interest to historians of social sciences and political doctrines, and specialists in physical anthropology, demography and entomology. It includes manuscripts by Georges Vacher de Lapouge, his correspondence with 500 French and foreign anthropologists, Lapouge's 1921 speech in America published in 1923 in  Eugenism in race and state.

  • The Circus Arts Fund

The Circus Arts Fund, mainly built up thanks to a generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous, includes works published between the end of the 16th and 19th centuries, and today: large format notebooks of lithographs and prints, circus arts training manuals, encyclopaedias, novels, fine books...

Last updated : 18/12/2023