Gallery History

Galerie Mazarine inherited the name and the location of the Galerie Mazarine, an antique and modern bookstore located downtown Montreal. The original gallery, now a prestigious contemporary and antique art gallery, owed its name to the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest library in France.

 Bibliothèque Mazarine was initially the personal library of Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), who was a great bibliophile. By the time of the French Revolution, the Bibliothèque Mazarine sheltered more than 60000 volumes. The library became public and received a considerable number of books seized from the nobles or from religious congregations.