Jacques Flach was born in Strasbourg, France, the capital of the Alsace region, on February 16, 1846. Flach studied classics and law at Strasbourg University, where he received a Doctor at Law in 1869. In his dissertation and writings, he endeavored to explain legal problems through historical analysis, which was a relatively innovative approach.
Flach wrote and collected books extensively throughout his life. His library supported his prolific writing and research. His collection has a wide breadth including texts on Irish politics, Mesopotamia, Russian history and the Alsace region of France. In total the University of Missouri Library purchased over 6,000 books from his estate in 1920.
The collection was purchased by Henry O. Severance, the University of Missouri library director. While he was working for the American Library in Paris, a service of the American Library Association, this collection came up for sale and he bought the Flach Library for about $6,000 including shipping.
The books from the collection were accessioned at the time of purchase, but the cataloging process continued for more than forty years. Currently only 814 titles of the approximately 6,000 have been identified as Flach collection books. The bulk of unidentified items have no Flach ex-libri. There is a continuing effort to search for the rest of the collection.
Currently there is a Flach book available for restoration support through our Adopt-A-Book program. This is Johann Weis’s elephant folio, Représentation des Fêtes Données par la Ville de Strasbourg Pour la Convalescence du Roi. This codex recorded Louis XV’s entry into Strasbourg in October 1744. Weis describes the events and supplies many of the illustrations. The elaborate plates depict the king’s entry into the city, fireworks and renders beautifully many of Strasbourg’s public buildings.
Please click here for a listing of the Jacques Flach books in MERLIN. Many of the books are located in the Rare Books Collection in Special Collections, but many of the Flach books are housed in the University of Missouri Depository (UMLD).
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Selected Bibliography
- “Columbia.” The Library Journal, 46 (1922): 418.
- Currie, Florence. “The Flach collection of the University of Missouri”. Bibliographical Society of America 17.1 (1923): 57-64.
- “Geofroi Jacques Flach.” The Encyclopedia Americana 11 (1919): p. 307.