Chartres, BM

Selected Canon Law Collections, ca. 500–1234
Revision as of 12:37, 29 November 2025 by Christof Rolker (talk | contribs) (Change to Double numbers)
Place Chartres
Full Name Médiathèque l'Apostrophe
Abbreviated as BM
Country France
Wikidata QID Q59749242
Official Website https://mediatheque.chartres.fr/
GND ID 1200887964
Catalogue CGM XI (1890) (manuscripts 1-1796)
Catalogue 2 CGM XLI (1903) (supplement)
Catalogue 3 https://chartres.irht.cnrs.fr/fr
Catalogue 4 Old (1840) catalogue


The main library of the city of Chartres housing the medieval manuscripts, or what is left of them, since 2007 is called the Médiathèque l'Apostrophe. The Wiki retains the traditional abbreviation as BM for the lemmata of all manuscript articles.

The Bibliothèque municipale of Chartres in 1944 was largely destroyed after an airraid on the city. Many of the more than 500 medieval manuscripts once in the municipal library were lost forever. However, fragments of some 300 codices were preserved by the IRHT. More recently, a large project aimed at the reconstruction of the lost manuscripts, including the digitization of all the fragments (https://chartres.irht.cnrs.fr/fr).

The manuscripts have been catalogued a first in 1840; the CGM catalogue of 1890 introduced new numbers that are still used today. However, the 1840 catalogue numbers are sometimes added in brackets. For example, Chartres, BM, 161 (154) is cited as "161 (154)" not only by CGM (here) but also by the IRHT (here, here and here); more commonly, however, the CGM number alone is used. The CCFr (here) cites it as "No 161", with 154 as "autre cote"; Biblissima has it as "Ms. 161" with "161 (154)" as alternative designation (here). The library homepage redirects to the the IRHT for its medieval manuscripts, but likewise uses the CGM numbers only to refer to its own manuscripts (see here). To avoid all ambiguit, the Clavis Wiki therefore used the CGM numbers plus the old Numbers in brackets for the lemma of all Chartrain manuscripts.

There are 15 manuscripts in this Wiki which are held by Chartres, BM; see Category:Manuscript in Chartres, BM.