What Gibert Joseph is known for
Gibert Joseph is a Latin Quarter bookseller descended from Joseph Gibert. He began selling books from bouquiniste boxes on the Quai Saint-Michel in the 1880s and opened a secondhand textbook shop on the Boulevard Saint-Michel. The Gibert Joseph name dates from 1929, when the founder's elder son opened at number 30. The shop now covers several buildings on the boulevard, mixing new and secondhand books with records.
Gibert Joseph is a Paris bookseller whose story starts with Joseph Gibert, a former teacher of classical literature from Saint-Étienne. He arrived in Paris in the 1880s and sold books from four bouquiniste boxes on the Quai Saint-Michel opposite Notre-Dame. He then opened a shop on the Boulevard Saint-Michel dealing in secondhand school textbooks. It thrived as Jules Ferry's laws made schooling free and compulsory. After his death in 1915 his sons took over, and in 1929 they went separate ways. The elder, Joseph, opened his own shop at 30 boulevard Saint-Michel under the name Gibert Joseph. Régis kept the original quayside business as Gibert Jeune. The Gibert Joseph shop grew to six floors and spread along the boulevard to numbers 26, 30 and 34, drawing students from the nearby Sorbonne. From the 1950s it added records, then videos and stationery. A specialist record shop opened at number 34 in 1996. In 2017 Gibert Joseph took over the struggling Gibert Jeune, ending 88 years of separation. Secondhand books still make up a large share of what the company sells.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Second-hand books, textbooks, and Left Bank browsing.
More in Paris
Where next
- Librairie Maupetit — Marseille
- Ernster — Luxembourg
- Livraria Lello — Porto
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