The Franceschetti memorial library

Adolphe Franceschetti (1896‐1968) was not only a great Swiss ophthalmologist and geneticist, but also a punctilious specialist who would not quote a publication he had not seen. This led him to enrich the library of the Geneva Department of Ophthalmology with various series of journals he personally bought. When asked by professor Wessely's widow to help sell her late husband's library, he bought it himself, thus completing his own personal library. And upon retiring in 1966, he housed the library in a wing he had added to his house for the purpose. After his death in 1968, the library was continued by his son, also an ophthalmologist, and is now housed in the Chateau de Vétraz‐Monthoux, a manor in the surroundings of Geneva. The library contains most of the world's journals of ophthalmology and related specialties, practically all starting from their very first issue, and elegantly bound in over 16 000 volumes.To this must be added the full collection of Professor Franceschetti's reprints and those he received, plus a unique collection of all the 19th century reprints of dermatology, that had once belonged to professor Jadassohn's, a famous dermatologist form Bern, Switzerland, as well as the reprints of professor Jadassohn's works.. The newly updated catalogue is available on www.library-francescetti.com.The problem of such a library, as it is now the case, is its future, as it needs to find an institution that could assure its perenniality and the certainty that it will continue to be of use to scientists and students.