Library
The CEAlex library specialises in research into Alexandria from antiquity to the present day. It also has general and standard works on Graeco-Roman antiquity, as well as over 3,200 volumes of periodicals.
The general catalogue, the amphora bibliography and the bibliography of works published by Maurice Picon include more than 18,000 titles (monographs and articles), and 1,500 articles concerning Alexandria taken from periodicals, conference proceedings and collective works. The periodicals catalogue lists historical and archaeological journals, as well as hard copies of the francophone press of Egypt physically held in the CEAlex.
In May 2015, thanks to a generous donation from Anne-Françoise and Antoine Picon, a new room was opened to house works from the library of Maurice Picon, physicist and archaeologist (1931-2014), devoted to the history of science and technology, ceramology and ethnoarchaeology, as well as a large collection of travellers’ accounts. In 2016, the Egyptological collection was enriched by a donation from the Dosne-Thiers Foundation. In 2019, the modern collection welcomed a donation from Sandro Manzoni, consisting of works on modern Alexandria, and specifically the accounts of members of foreign communities who left Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s.
In September 2015, the CEAlex library joined the FRANTIQ network, and since November 2018, thanks to inventory work begun in autumn 2017, our entire collection can be consulted online. FRANTIQ, a network of archaeological research centres (CNRS, various universities, the French Ministry of Culture, local authorities etc.) shares a collective indexed catalogue for its libraries as well as research reference tools (PACTOLS, Opentheso), covering the science of antiquity and archaeology from prehistory to the contemporary period.
The Collex collection, covering Ancient Egypt, archaeology and history, brings together the holdings of a network of libraries : Bibliothèque Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne (ASM), the library of the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, , the library of the Centre d’Études Alexandrines and the library of the Maison Archéologie et Ethnologie.
Click here for the CEAlex library catalogue:
Terms of access and practical information