Collège des Quatre-Nations

At his death in 1661, he also bequeathed his library, the Bibliothèque Mazarine, which he had opened to scholars since 1643, to the Collège des Quatre-Nations.

[1] According to the Cardinal's will it was to have the following composition: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who was one of five executors of Mazarin's estate, contrived to get the college built, appointing Louis Le Vau as the architect.

Le Vau, who at the time was also working on the south wing of the Cour Carrée of the Palais du Louvre (facing the River Seine), proposed that the college be placed directly across the river on the Left Bank, so that the sovereign (Louis XIV) would have a fine view of it from his future apartments.

The site was available because of the planned demolition of the Tour de Nesle and adjacent moat and wall of Philippe Auguste.

[2] Notable students of the college include the encyclopedist Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717–1783), the actor Henri Louis Cain (1728–1778), the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), the critic Julien Louis Geoffroy (1743–1814), the chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794),[3] and the mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752–1833).

The Collège des Quatre-Nations. Etching by Israel Silvestre , ca. 1670.
Collège des Quatre-Nations (formerly known as the Collège Mazarin): foundation and statutes . Print, 17th century ( Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne , NuBIS)