Collège Sainte-Barbe

The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (Latin Quarter, Paris). It was until its closure in June 1999 the oldest identified college of Paris. The Barbiste Spirit is kept alive through the Friendly Association of Old Barbistes, founded in 1820, recognized a public society since 1880, which is the oldest association of alumni of France, "l'Association Amicale des Anciens Barbistes".

Former Barbists (ordered by date of birth) include: section • Diogo de Gouveia (1471–1557) • Ignace de Loyola (1491–1556) • André de Gouveia (1497–1548) • St. François-Xavier (1506–1552), Roman Catholic missionary to India, China, and Southeast Asia • Pierre Lefevre (1506–1546) • Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) • Achilles Statius (1524–1581) • Michel Adanson (1727–1806), naturalist) • Jean Baptiste Louis Romé de Lisle (1736–1790), founder of crystallography • Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (1745–1799) • Eugène Scribe (1791–1861), dramatist and librettist • Felix Dupanloup (1802–1878), bishop • James Manby Gully (1808–1883), pioneer of hydrotherapy • Warren De la Rue (1815–1889), British astronomer • Gustave Eiffel (1832–1923), engineer • Sarkis Balyan (1835–1899) • Arsène d'Arsonval (1851–1940), physicist and doctor • Constantin Costa-Foru (26 October 1856 – 15 August 1935) • Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1939) • Jean Jaurès (1859–1914) • Émile Borel (1871–1956), mathematician • Enrique Zóbel de Ayala (born 1877), patriarch of the Filipino billionaire family of Zobel de Ayala • Charles Péguy (1873–1914) • Louis Blériot (1872–1936) Engineer and pioneer aviator • Henri-George Clouzot (1907–1977), scenario writer • the actors Michel Piccoli (born 1925) • Claude Lelouch (born 1937), scenario writers • Bernard Kouchner (born 1939) • François Berléand (born 1952)

The buildings of the college have undergone numerous modifications since its establishment in 1460. A university library, the Sainte-Barbe Library, has opened to the public in March 2009.