Paul Faralicq (1868-1956) devoted his entire career to rail transport, at first with the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, and then, from 1924, as director of the Société de transports et entrepôts frigorifiques. Officer of the Legion of honour for military services, general manager of the Fraternal Association of French Railway Employees and Workers and the instigator of numerous social projects in that capacity, he was also a keen book collector, who spent fifty years building up a library of several thousand volumes. Shortly before he died, he and his wife bequeathed a precious and eclectic collection to the Mazarine Library.
The collection is composed of 12 manuscripts (books of hours from the 14^_th-15^_th centuries, letters of Napoleon I, etc.), 20 incunabula and about 800 printed works (over 2,500 volumes) from the 16^_th to the 20^_th century, rare editions, illustrated books and bindings by Simier, Marius Michel or Canape.