Kosmos Desbillons

From 16 February to 30 April 2023, Mannheim University Library, in cooperation with the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne and the Mannheimer Altertumsverein, is showing the exhibition Kosmos Desbillons.

The Desbillons Collection is the most important and extensive historical collection at Mannheim University Library. It originates from the French Jesuit priest François-Joseph Terrasse Desbillons (1711-1789), who came to Mannheim at the invitation of Kurfürst Karl Theodor in the wake of the ban on his order in France in 1764. Desbillons was known to the contemporary public as a fabulist – we remember him above all as a bibliophile and universal scholar.

In an project funded by the Stiftung Kulturgut Baden-Württemberg, the handwritten estate of the Jesuit priest, which with about 150 documents is one of the most important collections from Mannheim's prosperous period in the late 18th century, was scientifically catalogued and structured. The exhibition Kosmos Desbillons is intended to serve as the conclusion of this cataloguing project and to pay tribute to Desbillon's importance for the University of Mannheim and the city of Mannheim. The exhibition is based on the historical collections of the University Library as well as on various archival materials on loan from various cultural institutions in Mannheim.

The exhibition is open daily during the library's opening hours.

We warmly invite all interested to the exhibition opening on Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 6 pm in library area A3.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a conference on Desbillon's work, organised in cooperation with the University of Reims and the Mannheimer Altertumsverein (MAV) by the University Library and the Chair of the History of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period at the University of Mannheim on 17 February 2023 for the whole day.