Léopold Delisle à l’école des mauristes ? Les archives personnelles des érudits bénédictins dans Le Cabinet des manuscrits

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After his initial historical research, Léopold Delisle continued to harbour a keen interest in the scholarly work of the Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur, and a particular curiosity for written documentation compiled before the French Revolution at the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and preserved in what was to become the future Bibliothèque nationale. His appointment to the Manuscripts Department, and the task he was given of maintaining the inventory of the vast wealth of Latin manuscripts preserved therein, afforded him a great opportunity to acquaint himself with the hundreds of bundles of papers and packets at that time comprising the Résidu Saint-Germain, a sprawling collection of correspondence, notes and working documents produced by the congregation monks throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. As the huge wealth of material came under his scrutiny and analysis, Léopold Delisle discovered and published a number of new documents, and thus contributed to writing a new chapter in the history of modern scholarship. More particularly, he pioneered the use of these learned records as a window onto medieval history to, for example, determine the provenance of the manuscripts preserved at the Bibliothèque and for the history and reconstruction of medieval libraries in general.