Center for Compostellan Studies
The Centre d’Études Compostellanes was founded in 1970 within the Société Française des Amis de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, under the direction of Jeanne Vielliard and then René de La Coste-Messelière.
It brings together academics, researchers, heritage, library and museum curators, students and scholars from France and abroad interested in working on the theme of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
From 1999 to 2016, it was directed by Adeline Rucquoi, a French historian, Hispanist and medievalist specializing in the history of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, and in particular the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
Presentation
The Centre d’Etudes Compostellanes has been constituted as a learned society, recognized by the Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (C.T.H.S.) and referenced on the “Ménestrel” web portal for medievalists.
He has collaborated with specialist centers in Spain, Italy, England and Germany.
The members of the Centre d’Études Compostellanes are members of the Société Française des Amis de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. They contribute the results of their work in the form of lectures, participation in symposia in France and abroad, advice to students and researchers, various publications and the publication of the annual review “Compostelle”.
Dormant since 2017, the board of directors of the Société Française des Amis de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle is working to reconstitute it and to encourage research into the history of Saint-Jacques and the pilgrimage to Compostela, which is its primary purpose.
Compostelle magazine
The magazine “Compostelle. Cahiers Du Centre D’études Compostellanes”, which was sent to all members of the Société Française des Amis de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, aims to make known the thousand and one facets of the route, the sanctuary and the pilgrimage over the centuries. For “ignorance is the mother of error”, as Isidore of Seville once said. And knowledge should not be the privilege of a few intellectuals.
The only French-language magazine devoted entirely to the theme of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (history, art, literature, archaeology, sociology, etc.), it can also be consulted in some of the world’s major libraries. Individual issues can also be purchased from the Société Française headquarters. The articles are written by specialists and illustrated. They are aimed at anyone who loves Santiago and wants to know more.
Publication, suspended since 2017, is due to resume in 2021.
The Mazarine Library
The Centre d’Études Compostellanes has a specialized library on the theme of the cult of Santiago and the pilgrimage to Compostela, with over 1,000 volumes, covering the fields of history, art history, literature, archaeology, liturgy, music, sociology, pilgrimage stories, novels, as well as numerous exhibition catalogs. The Centre’s library is housed at the Bibliothèque Mazarine.
The regular deposits made at the Mazarine library in Paris by the historians and archivists who have run the Centre d’études compostellanes aim to build up a collection relating to Santiago de Compostela, and thus make it available to researchers and anyone interested in the pilgrimage to Santiago. Today, 762 titles and 972 volumes are listed. Half of these titles are in French.
On presentation of your identity card, you can gain access to the Mazarine library, the oldest public library in France. Its catalog can be consulted at www.bibliotheque-mazarine.fr. To find your way around: click on “collection”, then “fonds particuliers” and finally “Saint-Jacques de Compostelle”.
Bibliothèque Mazarine – 23, quai de Conti, 75006 Paris – 01 44 41 44 46