Abstract
The study deals with the beginning and the shaping of one of the most important foreign libraries of the interwar Prague - The Library of the French Institute of Ernest Denis - in a synthetic way. It defines the key periods of its development.
It points at a surprising and so far almost unknown stage regarding the run of the institution during the World War II. However, the attention is also paid to its restoration after 1945 and its closing, which was slow and which did not happen suddenly after the beginning of the communist era.
Finally, the run of the institution during the 1950s, 1960s and the following years is analysed as well, because the library has been in the service of the public since 1967 again. The study observes this history until the transformation of the "library" in a "media library" in 1993.