Online catalog
The Missions Étrangères de Paris’s Asian library, instituted in 1984, contains works on East Asia specialised on the implementation of Christianism (especially Catholicism) and with one particular focus: the history of the Missions Étrangères Society.
Today, it holds a fund of more than 20,000 titles (monographs and periodical articles):
- 15,000 books in French on Asia and the Far East, from India to Japan. These books cover the history of the missions (the MEP more specifically), linguistic and ethnographic works produced by missionaries, including an ancient fund dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of more than 350 titles (Lettres édifiantes, travel writings, rites controversies…)
- 200 periodicals on the Far East and the mission
- 800 offprints (including a fund of 273 articles written by Jean Filliozat on India)
- 300 titles published by the “Nazareth” MEP printing press in Hong Kong (1884-1954)
- 1,000 works in Chinese on Christianity, literature, linguistics, and history
- 1,000 works in Japanese on Christianity, history, and linguistics, including the Joseph Dautremer fund (more than 400 titles – the equivalent of 2,000 volumes – from the Edo and Meiji eras)
- 1,000 works in Vietnamese on Christianity and linguistics, including 120 han-nôm documents (see the catalogue) and 280 works in Central Vietnam languages (Bahnar, Röglai, Jarai…)
- 600 works in Cambodian including more than a hundred works printed by Fr. Guesdon in the 1900’s on Cambodian popular literature
- 31 titles in Tibetan, mostly Christians
- Books written in South Indian languages (especially Tamil), Laotian, Burmese, Korean, Thai (these books are currently being classified).
