Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon

This collection consists of prints, posters, manuscripts and illuminations from Lyon library archives.

In exceptionally rich selection of prints you can find biggest names of various national and regional schools of engraving, from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century: Hans Holbein’s wood engravings, Jacques Callot and Rembrandt etchings, engravings by Claude Mellan and Robert Nanteuil, as well as Italian school which includes, among others, works by Raimondi, Della Bella, Canaletto and Piranesi.

There are more than 1000 posters from the 1890s to the mid 20th century. The great poster masters Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cappiello are well represented.

Here you can also find 55 rare Merovingian and Carolingian manuscripts – remarkable pieces of written heritage, dating back to the end of the 5th century. Digital collection includes illuminations with miniature drawings, exuberant borders and skillfully mastered initials from the 5th to the 16th century.

1. Visit the website https://numelyo.bm-lyon.fr/.
2. Go to Collections > Eluminures (Illuminations) OR Collections > Estampes (Prints) (you can select one at a time).

Now you can see most relevant collection items.

Links:
Illuminations (7,630 images)
Prints (6,901 images)

If you wish us to curate this collection for creators, make it searchable by keywords and easy to use, please consider supporting our platform.

If you wish us to curate this collection for creators, make it searchable by keywords and easy to use, please consider supporting our platform.

Open licence is applied to works, which are believed to be in the public domain in France (and most of the European countries).

There is no possibility to filter digital scans by open licence.

You have to check each image individually:
1. Go to the image page.
2. Check if an image is marked with: ‘Droit d’utilisation: Domaine public, Licence Ouverte-Open’.

More information by the provider:
Conditions utilisation
Open licence

Most original works are likely in the public domain in most of the European countries. You can see that in both ‘Prints’ and ‘Illuminations’ sections you will mostly find old works whose authors have passed away more than 70 years ago.

You can check each image individually:
1. Go to the image page.
2. Identify all the authors and contributors.
3. Find the death date of the last living author (dates are available).

If the last living author has passed away more than 70 years ago, most likely, his works are public domain in most of the European countries.

However, if you intend to use images for commercial purposes you might want to do additional checks to assess any risk. 

Please note, it is always your personal responsibility to make sure the work is out of copyright in all countries where you create and distribute your new creative works.

Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’)

On the left side you will find a filter which allows you to narrow down the search results (Illuminations) and also filter by school and technique (Prints).

Use Google Translate if you don’t know French.

Simple search results view with no additional functionalities.

Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’).

In ‘Prints’ section some works have additional context information. You can find this on the right side (see ‘The time of a print’ in a Google Translated page).

Also, on the right side there are 101 themes available to explore (in French only) (also available via ‘Illuminations’ section).

Go to the image page. Here you can:

• zoom in/out
• add to your library if you sign in
• share as a link
• contact the team
• provide additional information
• print out the image

Go to the image page. On the left side you will find:

• series title
• title
• author
• school
• publisher
• date
• technique
• dimensions
• some keywords

1. Go to the image page.
2. On the right side choose ‘Download’.
3. You will download 4 files:

• original
• thumbnail
• preview
• web version

Artist name, Title, Date. Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. Open licence (e.g. CC0 ) + a link

Share your new creative works using hashtags #RevivoStories#BibLyon @BibLyon!

Attribution guidelines are based on goodwill. They are not legally binding, but they are a secret way how to:
– Say ‘thank you’ to the most friendly for creators museums, archives and libraries.
– Encourage the release of new open collections for creativity.
– Inform and equip your fellow creators with new powers.