The Inguimbertine: the new library-museum in Carpentras

"Most of our illnesses come from our corruptible nature and our ignorance, but all consolation and healing come from God and science".

Any crisis of faith [1] can be cured, and no doubt the sick already felt better when they read these few lines inscribed on the walls of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Carpentras, which was opened in 1760 thanks to Monsignor d’Inguimbert.

1. L’Inguimbertine, a library-museum housed in the Hôtel-Dieu in Carpentras
Photo: Ville de Carpentras

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Monseigneur d’Inguimbert, bishop of Carpentras

Joseph-Dominique d’Inguimbert, a native of the town, joined the Dominicans at a very young age and left for Rome in 1707. He was to stay there for a few months, but ended up staying for twenty-six years. In 1715, he left the Dominicans for the Cistercians and chose to follow the rigorous rule of the Trappists, taking the name Dom Malachie. No doubt the austerity of monastic life was not for him; presented in 1728 to Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini, the future Clement XII, he ended up becoming the Pope’s confessor and curator of his library. But rivalries and enmities led to him being sidelined: in 1735 he was appointed Bishop of Carpentras.
In 1750, Monseigneur d’Inguimbert founded the Hôtel-Dieu hospital to care for the most needy patients. Five years earlier, he had opened another institution: the library-museum. It housed his personal collection of books - thousands of them - and objets d’art - several hundred of them - which he wanted to make available to the intellectuals of his time, eager to create a temple of the muses where people could read and contemplate. For works of art are "mute books" and "the pleasure of the eyes is an adjunct to study", as the Jesuit father Claude Clément once said.

2. L’Inguimbertine, a library-museum housed in the Hôtel-Dieu in Carpentras
Photo: Ville de Carpentras

See the image in its page

On his death in 1757, Monseigneur d’Inguimbert bequeathed his collection to the town of Carpentras. Initially housed in the Hôtel Grandis de Pomerol, the collection moved to the Hôtel d’Alleman in 1847. The premises were relatively small, unsuitable for receiving the public, and the collections were scattered around the town, between the Comtadin and Sobirats museums and the chapel of the Visitandines. A sufficiently large space had to be found to showcase this library, which was also a museum. In 1897, it was listed as one of the most important municipal libraries in France.
However, the Hôtel-Dieu had been empty since 2002; the hospital annex it housed had been transferred to a new health centre. It was therefore decided to refurbish the building’s 10,000 m2 to house the collections of Monseigneur d’Inguimbert, which had been enriched over the decades by a number of patrons from the region, including Casimir Barjavel, Isidore Moricelly, Adolphe Cavaillon, Alfred Naquet and François Jouve....

3. Chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu in…