The Role of the Curator of the Bayeux Tapestry

Summary

When, during one of his visits to Bayeux, David Bates asked me to speak at this conference about my work, I must admit, I was slightly dubious. What could I reveal to catch your attention? Does the role of Curator take on a particular slant when the exhibit is a world-renowned masterpiece? David was convinced that I could shed some light on aspects of my role that intrigue you and which would be of great interest to the readers of Anglo-Norman Studies, and so I looked back at my twenty-three years in post in Bayeux.

I was appointed Head of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Bayeux on 16 May 1989. While containing around 180,000 documents, of which 40,000 are classified as National Heritage items, the library is proud to hold the Bayeux Tapestry, which is listed as MS no. 1. Quite uniquely in France, and probably abroad, a textile artefact is treated as a handwritten document! A quick look back at its history is needed in order to understand how this is possible.

The Tapestry’s presence at the Cathedral is attested for the entire duration of the Ancien Régime. As a possession of the Church, it was seized during the Revolution and became National Property. It was, however, kept in Bayeux, and entrusted to the city’s inhabitants in 1804 by the First Consul, Napoleon. In the years following the Revolution, the Tapestry was displayed in the Hôtel de Ville and shown to visitors who asked to see it. In 1842, it was moved to the brand new Bibliothèque Municipale, where a cabinet was specifically designed in order to hold it (Figure 1). From this day on, succeeding Librarians have been responsible for the Tapestry, regardless of its location. Depending on circumstances, it was moved at the same time as the Library, or the Library was moved at the same time as the Tapestry.

The Bayeux Tapestry benefits from a unique classification with the French Ministry of Culture and Communication: it is part of the Library’s collections (now a multimedia library) and therefore falls within the department responsible for libraries; it also comes within the Department for French Monuments historiques, on the grounds that it was classified as such in 1840.