Abstract
Jules Oppert, appointed to the first chair of Assyrian philology and archaeology at the Collège de France, contributed indirectly to the establishment of the library of the Institute of Assyriology. Charles Fossey, his disciple and heir, stated in 1937, in response to a request for funds: "The library of the recently created Institute of Assyriology at the Collège de France comprises barely a thousand volumes". Since then, this library has considerably expanded and enriched its collection, with almost 40,000 books now available. We propose to retrace the beginnings and ongoing evolution of this project through the prism of its initiator, Jules Oppert.
