The library of the Institut d’Études augustiniennes was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the Congregation of Augustinians of the Assumption. The Congregation began to collect specialised publications relating to the study of the works of St. Augustine, in line with the activites of the Centre des études augustiniennes, founded by the Congregation in 1943, and which became in 1956 the Institut d’Études augustiniennes.
The Institute is linked by formal agreement with the Catholic Institue of Paris, with Doctoral School, «Ancient and Medieval Worlds», of the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), and with the CNRS, as part of UMR 8584.
From the original collection of material relating to the study of Augustine and Augustinianism, the library has grown to cover the following fields: study of the fathers of the Church and of the first Latin and Greek Christian authors, ancient philosophy, history of ancient and medieval Christianity, history of Roman Africa, high Middle Ages.
The library offers specialists a number of research aids, of up-to-date specialised bibliographies, and of monographs. It contains circa 36,200 volumes including 8,200 standard works (major patristics collections and religious encyclopedias), along with 135 live periodicals. Our holdings can be searched through the computerised union catalogues SUDOC. The book collection has been computer-catalogued in its entirety (cataloguing of extracts and off-prints is being completed), but the card catalogues, which end in 2001, can still be consulted: authors and anonymous catalogue; subjects catalogue; periodicals catalogue …. The library has its own classification system. The CAG database can be consulted on-line.
Library catalogue searches allow for coverage of a wider field of research.
