Free admission Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00
23 quai de Conti, 75006 PARIS
A poet of tragic destiny and an elusive figure of the Grand Siècle, Théophile de Viau has become the symbol of a scandalous freedom of thought, action and writing. His work, like his adventurous life, reflects the difficulty of "courir la carrière" in an era marked by strong political, cultural and religious tensions.
Born into a Protestant family of minor Gascon nobility, he made his name in Paris through his poetic talent and the support of patrons. Regarded as the leader of the modern men of letters, he was at the height of his fame when booksellers published the Parnasse satyrique, a collection of erotic and materialist pieces opening with a sonnet attributed to him. Devout circles attacked him as the figurehead of libertinage: the Jesuit François Garasse published his Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps, and the prosecutor Mathieu Molé brought his trial; a war of libels broke out. Condemned on 18 August 1623 to be burned alive with his books, he defended himself with verses of his own, composed in his cell at the Conciergerie and then at Chantilly, where he found a final refuge with the Duke of Montmorency.
His legacy, kept alive by the reissues of Georges de Scudéry and Jean Mairet and then by authors such as La Fontaine or Cyrano de Bergerac, collided with the triumphant classicism of Boileau. Faded from collective memory, then revived by Théophile Gautier, Théophile became a figure who haunted the Romantics, bibliophiles and the literary world of the 19th and 20th centuries.
On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death, the exhibition invites visitors to rediscover a fertile moment in French literary life. Ghost of an era when one could die for verses, Théophile de Viau takes part in the emergence of the figure of the writer in society and questions the possibility of thinking in poetry, from the Grand Siècle to today.
Curators:
Florine Lévecque-Stankiewicz (Bibliothèques Mazarine & de l'Institut de France)
Sophie Tonolo (Service du dictionnaire, Académie française – Université de Paris-Saclay)
Free guided tours by the exhibition curator:
Tuesday 10 November 2026 at 18:00
Tuesday 1 December 2026 at 18:00
Reservation required for guided tours, subject to availability: [email protected]
The Bibliothèque Mazarine is closed on public holidays, as well as on 24 and 31 December 2026.
Access to the exhibition is limited to 10:00–13:00 on days of public sessions of the Institut: 20 and 27 October, 9, 18, 24, 27 and 30 November, 3 December 2026.