Editing Jean-Baptiste Colbert (section)

===Promoter of culture===
[[File:Jean Baptiste Colbert -Antoine Coysevox - Musée du Louvre Sculptures MR 2115 ; N 15273.jpg|thumb|190px|Bust of Colbert by [[Antoine Coysevox]], Paris, [[Louvre]]]]
Colbert took much interest in art and literature. He possessed a remarkably fine private library, which he delighted to fill with valuable manuscripts from every part of Europe and the [[Near East]] where France had placed a consul. He employed [[Pierre de Carcavi]] and [[Étienne Baluze]] as librarians. Colbert's grandson sold the manuscript collection in 1732 to the [[Bibliothèque Nationale|Bibliothèque Royale]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Busby|first=Keith|title=Les Manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes|year=1993|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-9051836035|pages=113–114}}</ref>

Colbert founded a number of institutions: 
* in 1663 the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Médailles|Academy of Inscriptions and Medals]] 
* in 1666 the [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] (now part of the [[Institut de France]]) and the [[French Academy at Rome]]
* in 1667  the [[Paris Observatory]], which he employed [[Claude Perrault]] to build and brought [[Giovanni Domenico Cassini]] (1625–1712) from Italy to superintend 
* in 1669 the [[Académie d'Opéra]], later renamed the Académie Royale de Musique
* in 1671 the [[Académie Royale d'Architecture|Academy of Architecture]]
* Academies at [[Arles]], [[Soissons]], [[Nîmes]] and many other towns

He reorganised the [[Académie de peinture et de sculpture|Academy of Painting and Sculpture]] which Mazarin had established. Wishing to increase the prestige of the image of France and the French royal family, Colbert played an active role in bringing the great Italian architect-sculptor, [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini#Visit to France and service to King Louis XIV|Gian Lorenzo Bernini]], to Paris (June–October 1665), in order to design the new East Facade of the Louvre. This was a striking coup and caused a sensation because Bernini, the most famous artist in all of Europe, had never before (or after) consented to travel any significant distance to meet a patron, however highly ranked, but had to agree in this case for reasons of diplomacy between France and the [[Holy See]]. While in France, Bernini also sculpted a marble portrait bust of Louis XIV (Versailles palace). However the relations between the two strong-willed men, Colbert and Bernini, proved melodramatically stormy. Bernini's Louvre design was ultimately rejected.<ref>For Colbert and Bernini in Paris in 1665, see Franco Mormando, ''Bernini: His Life and His Rome'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 245–288. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Colbert himself became a member of the [[Académie française]]; and proposed one very characteristic rule with the intention of expediting the great ''[[Le dictionnaire de l'Académie française|Dictionary]]'', in which he had a great interest: no one could count as present at any meeting unless he arrived before the hour of commencement and remained till the hour for leaving. In 1673 Colbert presided over the first exhibition of the works of living painters; and he enriched the [[Louvre]] with hundreds of pictures and statues.

He gave many pensions to men of letters, among whom we find [[Molière]], [[Pierre Corneille|Corneille]], [[Jean Racine|Racine]], [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]], [[Pierre Daniel Huet|P D Huet]] (1630–1721) and [[Antoine Varillas]] (1626–1696); and even foreigners, as [[Christiaan Huygens|Huygens]], [[Carlo Roberto Dati]] the [[Accademia della Crusca|Dellacruscan]]. Evidence exists to show that by this munificence he hoped to draw out praises of his sovereign and himself; but this motive certainly does not account for all the splendid, if in some cases specious, services that he rendered to literature, science and art.