The Institut de France defines itself the ‘Protector of Arts, Literature and Science’. It is housed within one of the French capital’s most beautiful buildings: a former school, the Collège des Quatre-Nations, built by Cardinal Mazarin between 1662 and 1688. Since 1795 it has been the seat of five learned societies: the Académie française, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Beaux-arts and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. It is also home to the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest public library in France, open to scholars as well as casual visitors. The Institut de France also manages prestigious foundations and museums such as the Château de Chantilly, the Musée Jacquemart-André and the Abbaye Royale de Chaalis.