[Opening shot of the place D’Youville in Montreal on a sunny day. The title “Treasures beneath the city” appears on screen.]

[Shot of Hendrik Van Gijseghem, project manager in archeology and history at Pointe-à-Callière.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

I’m standing on place D’Youville where in 1832, St. Anne’s Market was built over the course of the Little River. In 1844 the Parliament of the Province of Canada came and sat here until 1849 when it was burned down. 

[A 19^th-century lithograph of the smoking ruins of the Montreal Parliament appears on screen.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

It’s on this site of national importance that Pointe-à-Callière undertook, between 2010 and 2017, major archaeological excavations. 

[A series of pictures of the archaeological dig appear on screen.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

Welcome to place D’Youville ! 

[The title “Lost Libraries” appears on screen.]

[A virtual rendering a lengthwise cross-section of the Parliament appears on screen. The camera zooms in on the library situated in the dome of the Parliament, then on the one in its right wing.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

One of the most prestigious elements at the Parliament was its two libraries, Library of the Congress and the Library of the Assembly. Now these were compendiums of basically everything that was known by humanity at the time, in history, literature, natural history, politics and things like that.

[A virtual rendition of the parliament library is shown on screen. The library is well furnished and cozily lit.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

They were highly prestigious places. 

[Shot of Hendrik Van Gijseghem at the place D’Youville.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

So we’re in the building’s central body where we kind of knew that one of the libraries of the Parliament was. What we didn’t know is that we’d actually be finding actual books. So in 2013 we found a bunch of books in that area. In 2017 we found a bunch more books in that area. Some 70 fragments of books altogether. So we realized that we were in fact correct in thinking that we were in the library. 

[A photography of an aerial view of the parliament archaeological site appears on screen. It is followed by several pictures of the dig site itself.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

The burnt remains of the Parliament ended up really deep underground at the level of the former Little River and so that had the effect of preserving some organic material that normally wouldn’t preserve through time. 

[Shot of François Gignac bringing the carefully wrapped burnt remains of a book to a table. He gently unwraps the book. Close up shots of the burnt book. François Gignac brings a frame with readable fragments of burnt books to the table. Close up shots of the fragments.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:

And so archaeologists were able to identify about 70 clumps of burnt paper that correspond to the locations of both of the libraries. And we can still read some of those pages, and entering, you know, some parts of sentences in Google Books, for instance, allowed us to identify a certain number of those books. And that discovery actually shocked the archaeologists because it’s highly unusual to find paper in any form in the archaeological remains. 

[The logo of “A parliament under your feet” appears on screen, under the title “outdoor exhibition.” There are two bubbles saying “free!” and “guides on-site.” The address “Place D’Youville, between St-Pierre and McGill streets” is at the bottom of the screen, next to the mention, “Until November 1^st.”]

[The logo of the Pointe-à-Callière museum appears on screen. Underneath it is the mention, “This project was made possible thanks to financial support from Tourisme Montréal’s Fonds de maintien des actifs stratégiques, with the financial participation of the Government of Quebec.” At the bottom of the screen are the logos of Tourisme Montréal, the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec.]