Reading, Writing, and Publishing in Eighteenth-Century France: a Case Study in the Sociology of Literature

Reading, Writing, and Publishing in Eighteenth-Century France: A Case Study in the Sociology of Literature

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Citation Darnton, Robert. 1971. Reading, writing, and publishing in eighteenth-century France: A case study in the sociology of literature. Daedalus 100(1): 214-256.

Published Version http://www.jstor.org/stable/20023999

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3403046

Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ROBERT DARNTON

in Reading, Writing, and Publishing Eighteenth-Century France: A Case Study in the Sociology of Literature

Non numerantur sed ponderante. ?Marc Bloch1

have a Historians always taken what society writes, publishes, as a to its never and reads guide culture, but they have taken all its as a as books guidebooks. Instead, they select few works repre sentative of the whole and settle down to write intellectual history. Of course those select few may not deserve to serve as cultural attach?s. If chosen without proportional representation, they may a in is give distorted view of reading habits the past. Nowhere the more at culturopomorphic distortion produced by miscast classics issue in a than the study of the French Enlightenment, subject at located the crossroads between the traditional history of ideas more recent and trends of social history. see as a Social historians tend to the Enlightenment social phenomenon?one of the forces of "innovation" opposing "inertia" in use the Old Regime (to the vocabulary of the Annales school). to a They attempt situate the Enlightenment within general cul texts. cul tural context rather than to explicate its And they study ture statistics of or quantitatively, often working from authorship book This will their work in order to see production. essay survey can in what conclusions be drawn concerning writing and reading to eighteenth-century France and will then attempt show how that an of work might be supplemented by investigation eighteenth was an eco century publishing. Publishing activity where social, cannot nomic, and cultural forces naturally converged. But it be in to understood, the eighteenth century, without reference politi a cal factors. So final section will deal with politics and pub as an lishing aspect of the prerevolutionary crisis. 214 Reading, Writing, and Publishing I

culture back The quantitative study of eighteenth-century goes to an Mornet. Mornet article published sixty years ago by Daniel measure tried to literary taste under the Old Regime by tallying which had up titles in five hundred catalogues of private libraries, in Paris area 1750 mostly been printed for auctions the between one and 1780. He found lonely copy of Rousseau's Contrat social. libraries contained a small Eighteenth-century surprisingly percen tage of the other Enlightenment classics, he discovered. Instead with works of men and their shelves bulged the history's forgotten women: Th?miseul de Saint-Hyacinthe, Mme. de Graffigny, and Mme. Riccoboni. Eighteenth-century booklovers divided French literature into "before" and "after" Cl?ment Marot. When they it was La Henriade and the read the philosophes, the Voltaire of Rousseau of La nouvelle H?loise.2 to Coinciding ironically with the "great books" approach the some study of civilization, Mornet's research seemed to knock out of He a at in the pillars of the Enlightenment. made gap, least, the view that the Social Contract prepared the way for Robespierre, ever and his followers have been trying to widen the breach since.3 some in Meanwhile, the Rousseauists have repaired of the damage a on counterattack Mornet's evidence.4 Why should private libraries to as an important enough have printed catalogues be taken indi a to and readers? cation of book's appeal ordinary impecunious they ask. They point out that the message of the Social Contract could it have reached the general reading public through the version of in numerous book five of Rousseau's highly popular Emile, through or came editions of his collected works, through editions that out during the momentous last decade of the Ancien R?gime, which not case Mornet's study did cover.5 So Mornet's remains unproved, or either right wrong. some Nonetheless, Mornet raised fundamental problems that to was have only begun be faced: What the character of literary culture under the Old Who in the Regime? produced books eigh were teenth century, who read them, and what they? It will be to in impossible locate the Enlightenment any cultural and social context are until those questions answered, and they cannot be answered by traditional methods of research. The most influential to a new attempt formulate methodology has been Robert Escarpit's Sociologie de la litt?rature (Paris, 1958 ).6 215 DAEDALUS

now As his title suggests, Escarpit, director of the Centre de at to sociologie des faits litt?raires Bordeaux, wanted define the a new He objects and methods of branch of sociology. treated books as in a the of writer agents psychological process, communication as a and reader, and also commodities, circulating through system of production, distribution, and consumption. Since the author a in plays crucial role both the psychological and the economic on the writ circuits of exchange, Escarpit concentrated study of ers. a to They constitute distinct segment of the population subject on normal demographic laws, he argued, and this assumption he a produced demographic history of authorship. In order to survey the literary population, he began with the on back pages of the Petit Larousse, moved to bibliographies and a writers biographical dictionaries, and emerged with list of 937 born between 1490 and 1900. He then worked this material into a in terms two-page graph, where the "fait litt?raire" appeared of the rise writers and fall of under the age of forty. Escarpit observed that the proportion of young writers rose after the deaths of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Napoleon. The Edict of Nantes also coincided with an of was cut short first upsurge youth, which after the triumph of and then the To Richelieu following the collapse of Fronde. was events Escarpit the conclusion clear: political determine liter ary demography. He confirmed this interpretation by reference to a England, where the Armada produced "vieillissement" among was overcome writers that only by the death of James I. is a It stirring spectacle, this adjustment of the literary popula tion to battles, edicts, revolutions, and the birth of sovereigns. But it leaves the reader confused. Is he to believe that a kind of intellec tual contraception took hold of the republic of letters? Did writers limit their out to Bess population of loyalty Good Queen (and or was curse on Victoria, too), vieillissement their the queens? Did men start in in to more young writing England order make life or difficult for Charles I, did they stop in France in order to show disaffection for Louis XIV? If one should discount any conscious motivation, why did young writers decrease in numbers after the accession of Louis XIV and increase after the accession of Louis XV XVI? and Louis And why should the birth and death of rulers so more have such demographic importance?or much than the revolutions of 1789 and 1848, which do not disturb the undulations as a of Escarpit's graph, although 1830 appears great turning point? 216 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

answers The to these questions might be found among the de over 410 ficiencies of Escarpit's statistics. To take 937 writers years is to a spread the sampling pretty thin?an average of 2.3 writers or a man year. Adding subtracting single could shift the graph by 5 cent or some per more, yet Escarpit hung weighty conclusions on a such shifts?his distinction, for example, between youthful romantic movement and the middle-aged character of literary life under the no Empire. More important, Escarpit had idea of how went a many writers uncounted. He evidently believed that few men case dozen (Lamartine and twenty-three others in the of the an early romantics ) could represent, demographically, entire literary new generation. A few individuals could, to be sure, represent a trend or cultural movement not the stylistic but phenomena that can be analyzed demographically, like generational conflict and the of to resources. adjustment population Escarpit attributed the sociological differences between eigh teenth- and to two nineteenth-century writing other factors: "pro vincialization" a and professionalization. He detected rhythmic "alternance Paris-province" by tracing the geographical origins of his authors. But preselected the geographical argument suffers from the same statistical fallacies as the so demographical, and Escarpit fails to prove that the Paris of Balzac dominated French literature more than the Paris In case any of Diderot. the of professionaliza seem tion, Escarpit's conclusions sounder. He produced two more statistical tables to show that there were middle-class pro or fessionals, writers who lived entirely from their pens, in the nineteenth than in the eighteenth century. But his argument is not the fact that the in the helped by percentages table of eighteenth century writers add up to 166 per cent.7 In this instance, Escarpit drew his statistics from The French Book in Trade the Ancien R?gime by David Pottinger, another of the example quantitative study of authorship. Pottinger pro ceeded by combing biographical dictionaries for information about six hundred "writers" who lived between 1500 and 1800. He then sorted his men into five social categories?the clergy, nobility of the sword, high bourgeoisie, middle bourgeoisie, and petty bour geosie?and apparently concluded that the authors of the Old to Regime belonged predominantly the nobility of the sword and the the is more high bourgeoisie. Again, conclusion convincing than the because statistics, Pottinger destroyed the representative ness of his sample by eliminating 48.5 per cent of the writers on 217 D DALUS

the grounds that he could not identify their social background. That stroke of statistical surgery left an average of one author a to a over year support social analysis spread out three centuries. Moreover, Pottinger apparently misfiled many individuals like Restif de la Bretonne, who went into the category of the First Estate because he had a brother who went into the church. Most of or the sixteen others in that category either had relatives protectors who were in clergymen. But who the Old Regime, excepting are more peasants, did not? Pottinger's other categories not much He in or solid. placed all writers who served the army navy with the of nobility the sword and placed teachers, apothecaries, archi we can or tects, and anyone "whom identify with the law with in the in the semilegal positions State"8 high bourgeoisie. That kind of at admissions policy would put the top of society many lowly writers who lived like the Neveu de Rameau but called themselves even lawyers and registered with the Paris bar. In any case, it is to strata almost impossible delimit of high, middle, and low bour because social historians to geois, have struggled vainly for years reach on a agreement meaningful definition of the "bourgeoisie"; and definitions of social stratification in the sixteenth century may not be to applicable the eighteenth. What then can one at conclude from quantitative history's to at nor tempts analyze authorship? Nothing all. Neither Escarpit men Pottinger produced evidence to prove that the handful of to a they chose represent the entire literary population of given was in period fact representative?and neither could possibly do so, because it would first be necessary to have a census of all the writers census can of the Old Regime. No such be contrived, for what, after all, is a writer? Someone who has written a book, someone who on a someone depends writing for living, who claims the title, or someone on con whom posterity has bestowed it? Conceptual fusion and deficient data blighted this branch of sociocultural his it bore its first tory before fruit. But the sociology of literature need not stand or on fall the first attempts to put it in practice. And statistics on more on reading should be fruitful than those writers? if Mornet can be modernized.

Mornet showed that a to primary obstacle understanding the culture the is our to answer of Old Regime inability the fundamental 218 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

an question: What did eighteenth-century Frenchmen read? The swer eludes us because we have no best-seller lists or statistics on his book "consumption" for the early modern period. Quantitative in a torians therefore have taken soundings variety of sources, to information to reconstruct out hoping tap enough the general line of eighteenth-century reading habits. Their predilection for can statistics does not imply any belief that they reduce the reader's internal to or measure experience numbers, quality quantitatively, or a produce numerical standard of literary influence. (Newton's score on Principia would low any crude statistical survey.) The to an quantifiers merely hope get over-all view of reading in An enormous general and by genre. amount of data has already been in compiled monographic articles and books by Fran?ois Furet, Jean Ehrard, Jacques Roger, Daniel Roche, Fran?ois Bluche the work on (using of R?gine Petit), and Jean Meyer.9 Each drew one of three kinds sources: of catalogues of private libraries, book and to the state for to reviews, application authorization publish. So the on reading problem has been heavily attacked three sides. If it has been cornered, if those long hours in the archives and those laborious a common calculations have extracted pattern from the then one can to data, hope watch the general contours of come eighteenth-century literary culture slowly into focus. Before whether all of the can seeing monographs be synthesized, it is to the character each has necessary explain of each, because special strengths and weaknesses. Furet Fran?ois surveyed the Biblioth?que Nationalen registers of requests for permission to publish books. The requests fell into two categories: permissions publiques (both privil?ges and per missions de Sceau for books ) processed formally through the state's censoring and bureaucratic machinery, and permissions tacites for books that censors not as would openly certify inoffensive to morals, or a religion, the state. Furet expected that traditional cultural show in an pattern would up the first category and innovative pat tern in the second, because, thanks to Malesherbes' liberal director of the book the tacites a ship trade, permissions became paralegal loophole through which many Enlightenment works reached the market during the last half of the century. But what works? How of many them? And in what proportion to the total number of books that can be identified with innovation? Furet could not say. He an acknowledged that unrecorded mass of books circulated with permissions simples, permissions de police, and mere tol?r 219 DAEDALUS

anees to scale of according the Old Regime's carefully graduated the French stuffed unknown quasilegality. Furthermore, quantities livres" into their the false of completely illegal "mauvais breeches, bottoms of their trunks, and even the coach of the Parisian lieuten list tacites ant-general of police. So the official of permissions may not one innovation. take very far in identifying it comes to The identification problems thicken when classify classifica ing the titles entered in the registers. Furet adopted the tion five standard scheme of eighteenth-century catalogues: headings et and "belles ?theology, jurisprudence, history, "sciences arts," a lettres"?and profusion of subcategories that would produce bed rococo lam in any modern library. To readers, travel books be came longed under history, and "?conomie politique" rightly after all chemistry and medicine and before agriculture and agronomy, in "sciences et arts." But the modern reader is happy neighbors on bewildered upon learning that early works politics (of the were tous permissions publiques variety) "presque des manuels How can statistics on "?conomie de technique commerciale."10 to French be politique" satisfy his desire know whether reading came as increasingly political the eighteenth century progressed? Framing twentieth-century questions within the confines of eight can eenth-century categories be misleading, especially for the researcher trying to fit the Enlightenment into the over-all picture in of reading the Old Regime. re Finally, Furet faced the problem of incomplete data. The to were quests print books do not indicate how many copies or printed the number of volumes, dates, places, and social groups case involved in sales. Except in the of privilege renewals, they same as give best-sellers the numerical value failures?the value of one. not even a an They do indicate whether request resulted in actual course con publication. And of they tell nothing about the nection between buying and reading books. To compensate for these deficiencies, Furet made a broad sta tistical sweep of the 30,000 titles registered between 1723 and 1789. His of six from the was analysis samplings data thorough enough him to out some a for map general trends without professing de tailed of the knowledge eighteenth century's literary topography. He his to into reduced findings bar graphs divided the eighteenth The a in century categories. graphs reveal decline theological and an in is increase scientific writing, which enough to carry Furet's main conclusion about the "d?sacralisation" of the world. They also 220 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

reinforce Mornet's belief that the traditional, classical culture in herited from the seventeenth century outweighed the enlightened are too elements of the eighteenth. But those elements scattered to haphazardly throughout the graphs provide any quantitative profile of the Enlightenment. By quantifying book reviews, Jean Ehrard and Jacques Roger tried to measure a that eighteenth-century reading by standard not to could be applied to Furet's data. They attempted show which most as num kinds of writing had vogue, indicated by the ber of the the reviews in two books reviewed and length of serious, "quality" periodicals, the Journal des savants and the M?moires de Tr?voux. statistics They gathered their from approxi same same as mately the periods and fit them into the categories Furet came did, and they up with complementary conclusions the interest in about rise of science (they locate it earlier in the the decline of and the eighteenth century), theology, "persistance des formes traditionnelles de la litt?rature."11 Unfortunately, they made no to measure similar effort their results against Mornet's. Mornet a himself had made careful study of reviews in the Mer cure and that no concluded they bore relation whatsoever to the real of His popularity novels.12 findings might be corroborated by more consultation of literary evidence, because eighteenth-century journalism frequently reflected the interests of journalists rather than those of their readers. The journalists of the Old Regime scratched and their a com clawed way through world of cabales, and to use terms was bines, pistons ( that necessity obliged to invent in the rough-and-tumble French Republic of Letters ), and their copy bore the marks of their struggle for survival. Thus the Journal des savants featured medical articles in very heavily the early eigh teenth not century, because of any great interest among its readers?who ceased actually buying "ce triste r?pertoire de mala dies"?but because the government in effect had taken it over and then surrendered it to a cabale of doctors, who used it to propagate their own views on medicine.13 Ehrard and tried to Roger cushion their statistics against the shock of such incidents a by analyzing large number of reviews? reviews of 1,800 books in the case of the Journal des savants. But it is difficult to winnow conclusions from such data and to co ordinate them with other can studies. What, for example, be made of the fact that the a Journal des savants, predominantly scientific its a periodical, reduced scientific reviewing by almost third in 221 D DALUS

a in the the late eighteenth century? Its reviews showed decline whole category "sciences et arts," while the category belles-let tres" rose It be rash to conclude that the spectacularly. would public lost interest in science, because the permissions tacites showed pre to a cisely the opposite trend, according Fran?ois Furet. Moreover, recent and study of three other journals by Jean-Louis Maria Furet and Flandrin produced results that contradict both those of not seem to a those of Ehrard and Roger.14 Periodicals do be good source statistics tastes the for quarrying about the of reading public. as in The catalogues of private libraries, Mornet originally serve dicated, might quantitative history better. But they present own. difficulties of their Few persons read all the books they own, in and many, especially the eighteenth century, read books they never were over purchased. Libraries usually built up several gen erations: far from representing reading tastes at any given time, were they automatically archaic. And eighteenth-century libraries were censored for all illegal books before being put up for auction. The censoring may have been imperfect (Mornet found forty-one copies of Voltaire's forbidden Lettres philosophiques), but it may have influential to also been enough exclude much of the Enlighten ment from the auction catalogues. remains the most im Despite these difficulties, Mornet's work portant of its kind, because it covered so many (five hundred) libraries, and because Mornet was able to trace the social position came a of so many of the owners. He found that they from variety of stations above the middle middle-class (a great many doctors, state as well as and lawyers, and especially officials, clergymen tastes not nobles of the robe and sword) and that reading did re correlate closely with social status. Louis Trenard got similar a in sults from nonquantitative investigation of libraries Lyons.15 But most oc the successful applications of Mornet's methods have a curred in studies of single social group. Daniel Roche's research on was the library of Dortous de Mairan actually limited to the a man. a case reading of single But Roche made convincing for as a savant Mairans typicality second-rank of the mid-eighteenth so century; his results suggest the general character of reading in on habits the influential milieu of lesser academicians. Drawing the research of R?gine Petit, Fran?ois Bluche studied the libraries were of thirty members of the Parlement of Paris, which catalogued He a between 1734 and 1795. worked his findings into convincing not as it over picture of parlementary culture, but evolved time. 222 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

and from 1766 His comparison of catalogues taken from 1734-1765 not a interest in and an increased 1780 does reveal declining law interest in belles-lettres and sciences et arts, as he maintained, be cause the statistical differences are trivial?not more than 1 per cent. Nonetheless, Bluche's conclusions correspond quite closely mem with those of Jean Meyer, who studied the libraries of twenty on bers of the Parlement of Brittany. Meyer based his statistics posthumous inventories of property (inventaires apr?s d?c?s), are more as sources. which usually reliable than auction catalogues a in contrast to He found preponderance of "traditional" literature a he noted a de small proportion of enlightened works, and also in and an increase cline the incidence of legal and religious works in as contemporary literature the century progressed. Quantitative seems to in history thus have been instrumental defining the cul ture of the high nobility of the robe. But has it succeeded in measuring the reading habits of France as a is success in whole? There hope for the complementary char acter one is is of the monographs. Where weak, another strong. Furet terrain to surveyed the whole but gave equal weight every not near title and did get the eighteenth-century reader; Ehrard measure seems and Roger got nearer, but their of reading incidence faulty; Mornet, Roche, and Bluche entered right into eighteenth century libraries, but only the sections of those libraries that reached auctions. If each public monograph covered the exposed portions of the another, entire topic may be considered safely under wraps. or Are the results mutually reinforcing mutually contradictory? The issue seems to important enough be put graphically (see page 224 ).16 can No consistent pattern, unfortunately, be extracted from this can ex confusing mosaic of graphs. Some of the inconsistencies be on the plained away: law naturally shows strongly graphs of the on parlementaires, science Dortous de Mairan's graph, and theology as to among the permissions publiques opposed the permissions tacites. But standard categories like belles-lettres, history, and sci ence are vary enormously; and the proportions wildly different. By each as a as imagining bar graph girl and each black stripe part of her one can see what a two-piece bathing suit, misshapen, motley we crowd of monographs must live with. There is some relief this bikini in from effect considering how the over monographs spread their proportions time. They all agree a as that the French read great deal of history?so much to make 223 :.t:

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an untenable the already discredited myth about "ahistorical" eight a amount it eenth century?and read consistent of throughout the century. The monographs also indicate that the French read less as on. religious literature time went Scientific reading probably in it constant. in creased, although may have remained And, general, as some "d?sacralisation," Furet put it, took hold of the reading an public. This tendency, however, might represent acceleration of a that in the Middle secularizing trend had begun Ages; acknowl not to edging it does help refine any generalizations about the Age and no can ex of the Enlightenment, other generalizations be tracted from the quantitative studies. Perhaps it is impossible to generalize about the over-all literary not culture of eighteenth-century France because there might have a been any such thing. In country where something like 9,600,000 instruction people had enough by the 1780's to sign their names,17 there could have been several reading publics and several cultures. In that case, quantitative historians would do better to avoid to on macroanalysis of reading and concentrate instead studies of specific groups like the parlementaires of Bluche and Meyer. When used carefully, in conjunction with other kinds of evidence and in to reference clearly-defined segments of the population, this kind of has to a it quantitative history proved be valuable tool. But has not answers provided to the broad questions raised by Mornet, and no there is reason to expect that those answers will emerge from the continued multiplication of monographs. as was more Just this essay going to press, two statistical studies were an of eighteenth-century reading published.18 They contain are as in con other whole series of bar graphs, which rich mutual as to tradictions the earlier series. The problem in trying fit them all one into coherent picture of the Old Regime's literary culture is that cover some to they different ranges of data: refer the reading to as habits of particular milieux, others reading throughout France sources. are revealed by different The contradictions more serious in the second kind, but all of the monographs suffer from deficient not more data; and the deficiencies will disappear if official records and more are to run periodicals subjected quantification. The of graphs could be extended indefinitely. But where will it all lead? to Perhaps back Mornet. No later research has done much either to discredit or refine his on tra emphasis the mountainous deposits of ditional culture in contrast to the few rivulets of modernity in the literary habits of the eighteenth century. 225 DAEDALUS

But even Mornet's interpretation calls for further proof, because none sources or successors was to of the examined by him his likely none contain the most modern works, and of the categories used for En the examining could be considered commensurate with the "inertia" "innova lightenment. The problem of measuring against in comes down to a tion" reading during the Old Regime always to sift statistics administrative problem of data: through sources, or is to censored journals, censored library catalogues eliminate much of the Enlightenment. No wonder the quantitative historians so so of the found the weight of the past heavy, when much pres ent was excluded from their balance. It may be cruel to conclude not us far that all this laborious quantification has advanced beyond Mornet, but the fact remains that we still do not know much about read. what eighteenth-century Frenchmen

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to a If the sociology of literature has failed develop coherent its if its commitment to has discipline of own, and quantification not answers to about and yet produced the basic questions reading in and have writing the past, nonetheless the sociologists quantifiers lit demonstrated the importance of interpreting the Old Regime's terms. a erary culture in more than merely literary Books have social life and an economic value. All the aspects of their existence even with ?literary, social, economic, and political?came together the greatest force in the publishing industry of the eighteenth if century. So sociocultural history (or the sociology of literature, a the term must be retained) might gain great deal from the study some the it seems best to of publishing. To suggest of possible gains, on draw material in the papers of publishers and other related sources in to three what Frenchmen order develop hypotheses: were read was determined in part by the way in which their books were two kinds of book produced and distributed; there basically distribution in the and production and eighteenth century, legal clandestine; and the differences between the two were crucial to the culture and politics of the Old Regime.1^ a of documents The differences emerge clearly by comparison in official archives and those in the papers of clandestine pub Direction lishers. The bookdealers of Lyons, for example, filled the de la librairie with letters and memoranda about their devotion to who the law,20 while addressing the foreign publishers supplied 226 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

in terms like the Revol, a them with illegal books following (A. J. is that he did not the Soci?t? Lyonnais dealer, arguing overcharge Neuch?tel for his services : typographique de smuggling )

Nous avons et expos? libert?, vie, sant?, argent r?putation. en sans nos nous aurions ?t? enferm? lettre Libert?, ce que amis, par de cachet. en fois aux avec les Vie, en ce qu'ayant ?t? diff?rentes prises employ?s nous les des fermes et les avoir forc?s, les armes ? la main, ? restituer cette il en avait douze ? balles qu'ils nous avaient saisies (? ?poque y auraient ?t? sans votre maison qui perdues pour vous, ressource.) nuits avons-nous ? toutes les intem Sant?, combien de pass?, expos?s sur rivi?res d?bord?es et p?ries des saisons, la neige, travers? les quelque sur les fois glaces. somme n'avons-nous donn?e en diff?rentes fois, Argent, quelle pas et calmer les tant pour faciliter l'exportation que pour ?viter les poursuites esprits. en ce nous avions celle de contrebandiers.21 R?putation, que acquis

Hundreds of men like these operated the underground system readers with and for supplying French prohibited pirated works, never tacites. were the kind that could qualify for permissions They obscure mule colorful characters, these literary buccaneers: the drivers who hauled crates of books over tortuous trails in the Juras a stiff the merchants on both for 12 livres the quintal and drink; the and cleared into sides of the border who paid off drivers paths Tax the France for them by bribing agents of the General Farm;22 in waggoners who took the crates to stockpiles provincial clearing houses like the Auberge du Cheval Rouge outside Lyons; the pro vincial bookdealers who cleared the crates through their local a in RevoTs and them to guilds (at 5 livres quintal case) relayed the like Mme. La Noue entrepots outside Paris; entrep?t keepers a warmhearted to of Versailles?to all the world garrulous, widow, a arabe"23 her customers shrewd businesswoman, "passablement me flatte Ion sait me randre and full of professional pride ("je que cest sorte de mar justice par les precaution que je prand pour chandises,"24 she wrote to a client in her semiliterate hand); the et sans moeurs et sans colporters like Cugnet femme, "bandits as were in the who the pudeur"25 they known trade, smuggled books from Versailles to Paris; and deviate Parisian distributors et were well with the like Desauges p?re fils, who acquainted avec "l'?tre le Bastille,26 and Poin?ot, "bien la police"27 but plus to one of acari?tre que je connaisse,"28 according J. F. Bornand, secret in Paris did odd for the the many literary agents who jobs 227 D DALUS

foreign publishers and completed the circuit by supplying them with An enormous manuscripts and best sellers to pirate.2^ number of books illegal passed through these slippery hands, greasing as went. in to palms they Their importance relation legal and im quasilegal literature cannot be calculated until the clandestine are one port records compiled. But nonquantitative conclusion seems at outset: significant the underground publishing and legal in publishing operated separate circuits, and the underground was a a force operation complicated affair, involving large labor in drawn from particular milieux. Far from having been lost the unrecorded depths of history, the individuals who processed can clandestine books be found and situated socially. They had names in and faces, which show up vividly the papers of eighteenth century publishers. And their experience suggests that underground was a its own. publishing world of How was different the world of legal publishing. The thirty-six one or so master printers and hundred master booksellers of Paris in and behind their lived pomp circumstance, parading beadle, in on dressed splendidly velvet trimmed with gold lilies, ceremonial masses statue of occasions; celebrating solemn before the silver in their patron, Saint John the Evangelist, the Church of the at held con Mathurins; feasting the sumptuous banquets by their new a fraternity; initiating members into their guild, matter of ritualistic oaths and examinations; participating in the Tuesday and to Friday inspections of legally imported books delivered the guild customs hall by "forts" from the and city gates; and minding their own businesses. As businessmen, they kept closed shops. Elaborate in regulations?at least 3,000 edicts and ordonnances of all kinds the eighteenth century alone30?specified the qualifications and limited the number of everyone connected with legal publishing, to 120 who divided the official down the ragged colporters up of almanacs and in the streets monopoly hawking proclamations wore in and leather badges to prove membership their corps. Cor porateness, monopoly, and family connections tied down every corner of the trade. In fact the cornering of the market dated from a a seventeenth-century crisis. In 1666 Colbert had settled trade war in between the Parisian and provincial publishers by, effect, the con ruining provincial printing and placing the industry under trol of the Communaut? des imprimeurs et libraires de Paris. By a master dom ruling this guild, few families of printer-booksellers inated legal French publishing throughout the eighteenth century. 228 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

on The guild spirit shows clearly through the major edicts pub lishing issued in 1686, 1723, 1744, and 1777. The edict of 1723, most which laid down the law throughout of the eighteenth century, an or communicates attitude that might be called "mercantilistic" "Colbertist," for it codified the reorganization of the trade produced in the 1660's by Colbert himself. Condemning capitalistic "avidit? it stan du gain,"31 stressed the importance of maintaining quality it in dards, which defined great detail. The type-face of three T's must as one be exactly the same in width "m," and the "m" must conform to a model "m" with the and precisely deposited syndics were to deputies of the guild, who inspect the thirty-six printing once in to sure that each con shops every three months order make tained the requisite minimum of four presses and nine sets of type, roman in both and italic, good condition. Strict requirements regu were lated the advancement of apprentices to masterships, which limited in to number and tended become family possessions?for at every point the edict favored widows, sons, and son-in-laws of the established masters. an These privileged few enjoyed air-tight monopoly of book production and marketing. Non-guild members not even a could sell old paper without facing 500 livres fine and was "punition exemplaire."32 The guild elaborately organized and favored with et "droits, franchises, immunit?s, pr?rogatives priv as a il?ges."33 Not only did it monopolize its trade, but corps within it tax the university benefited from special exemptions. Books themselves were a tax-exempt. Each contained formal "priv or il?ge" "permission," granted by the king's "gr?ce" and registered in the in chancellery and the guild's Chambre syndicale. By pur a a an to chasing privilege, guild member acquired exclusive right sell a a a com book, thereby transforming "gr?ce" into kind of modity, which he could divide into portions and sell to other So at members. monopoly and privilege existed three levels in the as publishing industry: within the book itself, within the guild, and an the own status aspect of guild's special within the Old Regime. This third level deserves emphasis, because the guild's special a as as an position involved policing well economic function. The state had not an often shown enlightened attitude in its attempts to police the printed word before 1750, when Malesherbes became Directeur de librairie. In 1535 it to la responded the discovery that books could be seditious to by deciding hang anyone who printed them. In 1521 it had tried to tame the new it industry by subjecting to the a surveillance of medieval body, the university. And in 1618, 229 D DALUS

it time tried again, this by confining publishers within the guild, another rather archaic kind of organization. In addition, the state to its own attempted bring books under control by developing apparatus?at first within the chancellery and the Parisian lieu tenance-g?n?rale de police, later under the Direction de h li own in brairie?and by holding its against rival book-inspectors the Parlement of Paris, the General Assembly of the Clergy, and other influential institutions. This bureaucratic entanglement did not the the on choke power of guild; the contrary, the guild continued to hunt out "mauvais livres" until the Revolution. The edicts of 1777 its to for 1723 and reaffirmed authority search illegal printing and to to This inspect books shipped Paris. policy made perfect sense: a a in the state created monopoly with vested interest law enforcement, and the monopolists maintained their interest by some crushing extra-legal competition. Although guild members most to dabbled in underground publishing, of them wanted stamp it out. It robbed and undersold them, while the guild existed to meant secure protect their privileges. Well-protected privileges more profits, which looked attractive than the risky business of since them to a illegal publishing, especially illegality exposed the then double danger: punishment for particular infraction and of A expulsion from the magic circle monopolists. printer-book not it seller's mastership really belonged to his family. He could risk to on a to lightly. Better buy the privilege prayer book and collect a to on a certain but limited profit than wager everything clandestine edition of Voltaire. Such an attitude suited a "traditional" econ even out as omy, where merchant adventurers dropped of trade soon as in rentes?or at they had made enough to invest borrowed 5 per cent to buy land that yielded 1-2 per cent of its purchase in price annual profits.34 It would be a mistake, therefore, to underestimate the economic in on P. element the Old Regime's legislation publishing. J. Blondel, an no old-fashioned abb? who had love for philosophes, fulminated even it the restrictions against the edict of 1723, though tightened on he saw it as a economic philosophic works, because purely measure: an of the extension the guild's monopoly.35 Actually, economic of the edict each political and aspects complemented to serve interests the other. Strengthening the guild seemed the of as as state well those of the privileged publishers. But the reform movement modified the state's view of its interests, and the pub soon on lishing code of 1777, promulgated after Turgot's attacks 230 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

a from the the six great commercial guilds of Paris, shows shift away the old "Colbertism." Instead of condemning "avidit? du gain," now intention king repudiated any of favoring "monopole," praised the effects of "concurrence," and relaxed the rules governing priv in to commerce."36 He did not ileges order "augmenter l'activit? du in fact its character undercut the notion of privilege; he confirmed as a en as a "gr?ce fond?e justice"37 rather than kind of property, but he modified it in favor of authors and at the expense of the to a bookdealers. The guild had tried prevent such blow long be an its case. fore it actually struck by getting author to present The result, Diderot's Lettre sur le commerce de la librairie, reiterated the old arguments about maintaining quality by restricting pro own ductivity in contradiction to Diderot's liberal principles and sur Malesherbes' M?moires la librairie, which had partly inspired Lettre as the the reform project. Apparently dismissing Diderot's a work of hired hack, Malesherbes' liberal successors, especially the Sartine and Le Camus de Neville, pushed through edicts of so on 1777 and somewhat loosened the guild's stranglehold the publishing industry.38 But the controversial item in the code of 1777 concerned the was now relations of guild members and authors: privilege clearly to the derived from authorship and belonged author and his heirs or it to a perpetually expired after his death, if he had ceded book dealer and the dealer had had it for at least ten years. This pro vision brought many works into the public domain and provoked not bitter complaints by the guild members, but it did really under mine their monopoly.39 The code reinforced their power to police the in terms book trade and repeated the strongest possible that no one in outside the guild could engage publishing. So the to in dynasties of printer-booksellers continued dominate their until the The dustry Revolution. greatest of them, Charles-Joseph as a Panckoucke, operated sort of combination press baron and minister of culture: "sa voiture le portait chez les ministres du roi, comme un un ? Versailles, qui le recevaient fonctionnaire ayant portefeuille."40 never a There had been any question of creating free trade in as books by abolishing the guild Turgot had abolished the six great jurandes. The economic issue took another form; it arose from the ancient enmity between Parisian and provincial bookdealers. Pro war vincial printing had not recovered since the trade of the seventeenth but survived in century, provincial booksellers large 231 D DALUS numbers throughout the eighteenth century, and they drew much their in the in of stock (often form of exchanges, measured page gatherings) from outside France, where hundreds of enterprising out printers turned cheap pirated editions of French works. The state a in in inadvertently produced boom this illicit trade the a tax on a more in 1770's by levying paper, much costly item the budget of eighteenth-century printers than it is today. no Printer's papier blanc had been taxed from time to time, a tably in 1680 and 1748, but not at ruinous rate and not much, if at all, outside Paris?until March 1, 1771, when the abb? Terray, to cut trying desperately the deficit accumulated during the it sous ream. Seven Years' War, taxed 20 per In August 1771 he sous as a increased that rate by 10 result of the across-the-board sous went tax of 2 per livre. Since exports of French paper duty and their allies an enor free, foreign printers provincial gained mous A ream cost 11 advantage. of good white papier d'Auvergne to one livres in Paris and 8 livres in Switzerland, according esti a mate.41 To right the balance, Terray placed duty of 60 livres per on on quintal imports of French and Latin books September 11, measure 1771. But this massacred the exchange trade between provincial dealers and foreigners. de Seized by panic, publishers like the Soci?t? typographique cast Neuch?tel suspended all shipments to France and about des their perately for ways of cracking the tariff barrier while tough in men customers the provinces, like Jean Marie Bruysset and P?risse Duluc of Lyons, agitated for the repeal of the duty.42 The on tax was reduced to 20 agitation paid: November 24, 1771, the livres; on October 17, 1773, it went down to 6 livres 10 sols; and on April 23, 1775, Turgot withdrew it altogether. But this reversal of in policy again tipped the economic balance favor of the foreign publishers. An unsigned memorandum to the ministry reported: ce moment senti "C'est depuis que les Suisses, ayant qu'ils pouvaient nos ont et donner livres ? 50% meilleur march? que nous, pill? notre et en nos a trois ravag? librairie, effet ils donnent livres ou un et comme aux liards sol de France la feuille, frais de l'imp?t sur et du en le papier, du haut prix de l'impression tirage France, on ne souvent il faut joindre l'achat des manuscrits, peut pas trouver de b?n?fice en vendant cette m?me feuille deux ou trois an new En sols." As example, the writer said that Panckoucke's at a cyclop?die m?thodique would have to sell 11 livres volume cover a for Panckoucke merely to production costs, while pirated 232 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

in at a a Swiss edition could sell Paris 6 livres volume and produce 40-50 per cent profit.43 Until mid-1783 the business of foreign publishers and provincial dealers seems to have flourished at the expense of their Parisian on rivals, but June 12, 1783, Vergennes, the foreign minister, a destroyed it with stroke of the pen. He issued orders to the General Farm Tax requiring that all book imports?garnished with the usual seals, lead stamps, and acquits ? caution?be transmitted to the Parisian Chambre syndicale of the guild for inspection before being to delivered their final destination. Without tampering further with the taxation or system passing through formal, legal channels like the this measure at once earlier edicts, restored the guild's domination of the book trade. It meant that a crate of books sent to now to from Geneva Lyons had pass through the hands of the in an to guild officials Paris, which gave the Parisians opportunity out a weed pirated editions and saddled the Lyonnais with detour that would cost more than the books were worth. Even the extra a trip from Rouen to Paris and back would ruin his business, desperate Rouennais wrote.44 Booksellers in Lille reported that had no choice to rot in they but let imports pile up and their damp customs The house.45 Lyonnais claimed that they had suspended a all book imports?a matter of 2,000 quintals year?and were in danger of suspending payments.46 And while protests from pro vincial dealers flooded the Direction de la librairie, frantic letters the circuit flew around of publishers who fed the provincials from across France's borders. Boubers of Brussels, Gosse of The Hague, Dufour of Maestricht, Grasset of Lausanne, Bassompierre of Ge neva, and dozens of others, all trembled for their commercial lives. sent an The Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel out agent, J.-F. to to its Bornand, inspect the damage done supply lines. Bornand that reported the "malheureux arr?t" had stopped all book traffic in Savoy and Franche-Comt?. A side trip to Grenoble showed him route was au that the southern "h?riss?e de gardes, point qu'au on mes ma bureau de Chaparillan m'a saisi tous livres dans malle ... en nous ne faisant voir l'ordre du roi qui leur enjoint de laisser aucune in passer librairie quelconque."47 The bookdealers Lyons told stories Bornand such gloomy that he concluded, "Il faut renoncer ? was la France."48 They believed that Panckoucke be hind the he crackdown, because wanted to destroy his Swiss & competitors, notably Heubach Cie, of Lausanne, whose pirating had cut deeply into the sales of his edition of Buffon's Histoire 233 DAEDALUS

same rumor naturelle. Bornand reported the from Besan?on; and when he arrived in Paris, the booksellers turned their "air de on cause m?pris" him with full force. One threatened to him "tout et un entre le mal possible, c'est pacte form? les libraires de contre et contre ceux Paris les libraires ?trangers m?me de pro vince."49 By mid-1785, the Neuch?telois still found it impossible to to get their books the great clandestine trade center of Avignon,50 to and they abandoned attempts reach Paris through smugglers stationed in Geneva, Besan?on, Dijon, Ch?lons-sur-Sa?ne, and Their in France cut to a Clairvaux. booming business had been never as to a trickle. It recovered, because, they explained Parisian se servent autres confidant, "Nous ignorons de quelle voie les nous ne imprimeurs d'ici, de Lausanne et de Berne; connaissons sous ? caution Paris . . . point d'autre que d'exp?dier acquit pour Toute autre voie nous est interdite, parce que nous ne voulons pas nous courir des risques, ni exposer ? la confiscation et ? l'amende."51 cut Vergennes had the lifeline linking foreign producers and pro vincial distributors. to the orders would According provincial protests, Vergennes' the in im decimate legal foreign trade books. By making imports new an possibly expensive, the rules would produce inevitable de since was us cline in exports, especially the import-export business so ually conducted in exchanges of many page-gatherings rather saw as a new than in money. The state the orders policing tech nique, aimed at the destruction of pirated and prohibited books? views the bread and butter of underground publishing. Both may have been correct, but the clandestine trade probably suffered the most. of the The monopolistic practices the Parisians had forced provincials to seek shelter underground. There they formed alli ances sent them works with foreign publishers, who illegal under cover an a customs of acquit ? caution, permit that protected book the their shipments from all inspection between border and points were to of destination within France, where they be examined by the nearest official bookdealer. He would certify their legitimacy by the driver endorsing the back of the acquit and returning it, by who had delivered the books, to the border station where it had been an either issued. A dealer collaborating with illegal publisher could or market the books himself (instead of impounding them), he on and a commission. Since could relay them toward Paris collect were never en domestic book shipments inspected route, they could an in without risk reach entrep?t outside Paris, usually Versailles, 234 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

in and then could be smuggled small quantities into the capitol. as as could The system worked quite well long provincial dealers ? But that in the discharge the acquits caution. by placing function hands of the Parisian guild, Vergennes undercut the whole opera course were tion. Of there other ways of reaching the market, but it was no to cus easy task thread one's way through the internal toms to barriers and dodge the roaming inspectors of the General a a Farm, who received reward and portion of the goods after every confiscation. What the drivers and clandestine agents wanted was so rum legal camouflage they could send whole wagonloads of to bling down the middle France's splendid highways provincial to guildhalls and the very palace of the king. The clandestine trade was a matter of calculating risks and profit margins. Too chancy, too a of not elaborate system smuggling would pay. So when the the Vergennes changed rules of the game, foreign suppliers disaster. If the of the Soci?t? and provincial dealers faced papers to typographique de Neuch?tel indicate the general reaction the into a order of June 12, 1783, the whole underground industry fell at depression that lasted for least two years and perhaps until 1789.52 As as was far foreign publishing concerned, the French govern ment to a had finally committed itself policy of laissez faire but not laissez passer. the of French book con Curiously, graphs legal production a structed by Robert Estivals and Fran?ois Furet also show spec tacular in the low of a drop 1783, point slump extending roughly from 1774 to 1786.53 Why this slump occurred is difficult to say. It not seem to to eco does be related Labrousse's prerevolutionary or nomic crisis the Labrousse-like "cycles" that Estivals somehow sees in his statistics. Could it be connected with Vergennes' orders of June 12, 1783? The purpose of the orders stands out clearly in the an text: to put end to "la multitude de libelles imprim?s dans et l'?tranger introduits dans le royaume."54 Even the petitions from the provincial bookdealers acknowledged that "le motif de l'ordre est d'emp?cher l'introduction des libelles qui viennent de a at l'?tranger."55 And glance Vergennes' correspondence with his ambassadors shows how much the libelles concerned him. In 1782 wrote as and 1783 he many letters to England about the need to sup a smut run as press factory by ?migr? French "libellistes" he did about the to He sent diplomatic preliminaries the Treaty of Paris. secret after secret a agent agent ( bizarre collection of bogus barons and one as an to police inspector disguised umbrella salesman ) buy 235 DAEDALUS off or the libellistes. No details of their rococo kidnap fantastic, were the intrigues too trivial for Vergennes' attention, for he feared on in Well the effect of the libelles public opinion France. before Diamond Necklace Affair, he exhorted the French charg? d'affaires to out "Vous connaissez la stamp political pornography: malignit? avec sont de notre si?cle et quelle facilit? les fables les plus absurdes re?ues."56 The orders of June 12, 1783, must have been part of this campaign, and they must have been fairly successful, judging from in world of the consternation they produced the underground pub of works like Les amours de Chariot lishing and the large collection et sur vie Marie-Antoinette Toinette and Essais historiques la de in that the revolutionaries gleefully inventoried the Bastille after 1789.57 no reason libelles There is to connect the campaign against with it seems the drop in legal book production. Nonetheless, possible was so to libelles that Vergennes determined shut off the flow of from outside France that he dammed up the channels of legitimate in the imports, too. His action could have created repercussions as dealers ar legal system of publishing, exactly the provincial even most gued. It would have forced the honest provincial book sellers to retrench, because it would have increased their ex trade. It would also penses drastically and destroyed their exchange have eliminated their roles as middlemen (an important business commerce As in Lyons ) in between northern and southern Europe. the always, the Parisians might have profited from provincials' But some the stock that used losses. provincial dealers drew of they from Paris. So offer also could have for foreign exchanges Vergennes' market. It reduced book damaged part of the Parisians' certainly on a to imports national scale and, owing the crucial importance in a of exchanges the book trade, probably produced correspond in Over-all French book therefore ing drop exports. production as it it would have suffered, just suffered from the buffeting given taxes and tariffs. If these since 1771 by the succession of hypotheses are that and correct, they suggest underground legal publishing so not be in were not so separate and inimical that they could a common A have attached jured by blow. certain symbiosis might two Each circuit relied on segments of the circuits. heavily injec must be measured tions of foreign books, and that foreign element more the of ideas if there is to be exact knowledge about circulation it seems in the Old Regime. At this prestatistical stage, however, to insist on one far from as a result of legitimate point: flourishing 236 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

as virtual freedom of the press, is usually maintained, French pub a severe on eve a lishing underwent crisis the of the Revolution, not crisis that has not been noticed by historians, because it did manifest itself in formal documents, like the edicts on the book trade.58 crisis seems of be The publishing especially worthy notice, a cause its economic and intellectual aspects were related in way that reveals aspects of the prerevolutionary crisis. Economically, for antithetical do legal and clandestine publishing stood ways of Parisian ing business. Faithful to the old "Colbertist" methods, the a limited num Communaut? des libraires et imprimeurs produced to It turned ber of quality goods according official specifications. out traditional books for a traditional market, which it controlled an ran no it by virtue of official monopoly. It risks, because owed its to its and its were profits privileges; privileges family treasures, handed down from father to son and husband to widow. Fur its a share in the thermore, the guild fortified monopoly by repres state. In as in so the sive power of the publishing, many other cases, was eaten the Old Regime away by privilege?not juridical privi of leges dividing nobles from commoners, but the privilege vested interests, which devoured the state like a cancer. In its last years, the government tried to rally and reform. But its efforts reactivated the century-old conflict between provincial and Parisian bookdeal ers, and the book duties of 1771-1775 followed by Vergennes' order of final Parisian June 12, 1783, represented the triumph of the pub lishing dynasties. was an But this triumph limited by the limitations of archaic production system. Despite the flexibility introduced through the use a of permissions tacites and the adventurous policies of few to guild members, privileged publishing failed satisfy the demand an tastes. created by enlarged readership and by changing literary The reading patterns of the past weighed heavily in the traditional sector as of publishing, the statistics of Mornet and Furet demon most strate; and the reluctance of traditional publishers to deviate from those patterns is perfectly understandable. Why should they abandon their privileges, risk their special status, and endanger new uncertain their families' livelihood by producing literature of came legality? "Innovation" through the underground. Down there, no were legalities constrained productivity, and books turned out a kind of by rampant capitalism. Not only did the state's misguided fiscal it to new policies make cheaper produce works outside 237 DAEDALUS

did a wild and business in France, but foreign publishers woolly ones. soon as a was pirating old As their agents reported that book well in for a counterfeit edi selling Paris, they began setting type hard-core "mauvais tion. Some of them also printed prohibited, were who that livres." They tough businessmen produced anything would sell. They took risks, broke traditions, and maximized prof than to its by quantity instead of quality production. Rather try corner some a segment of the market by legal monopoly, they even so. wanted to be left alone by the state and would bribe it to do were a They entrepreneurs who made business of Enlightenment. The enlightened themes of the books they produced?indi as to cor vidualism, liberty, and equality before the law opposed "mercantilist" restrictions?suited their poratism, privilege, and way A Marxist that the modes of doing business. might argue of pro duction determined the product?an extravagant interpretation, but one serve as an antidote to the of that might conventional history ideas.59 Books are economic commodities as well as cultural ar as to on a tifacts; and vehicles of ideas, they have be peddled France calls market. The literary marketplace of eighteenth-century or for closer analysis, for its books?whether privileged philosophic, traditional or innovative?epitomized the character of the Old Re

gime.

was a as well as a social and eco Since the Old Regime political a of its nomic system, socioeconomic interpretation publishing to account of factors. in were those ought take political What, fact, so to out of France? books that Vergennes wanted desperately keep were in handwritten entitled "livres They listed catalogues philoso which and offered such delicious for phiques," circulated secretly bidden fruit as :60

dans ou la en V?nus le clo?tre, religieuse chemise, figures ?dition Syst?me de la nature, 8?, 2 vol. 1775 tr?s belle Syst?me social, 8?, 3 vol. 1775 Fausset? des miracles La fille de joie, 8?, figures Rousseau 12? Contrat social par Jean-Jacques des r?volutions en France M. Journal historique op?r?es par Maupeou, 3 vol. 8? M?moires authentiques de Mme. la comtesse Du Barry, 1775 la Margot ravaudeuse, 12?, figures 238 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

Lettres de l'abb? Terray ? M. Tur got Les et leurs droits des hommes usurpations The same circulated a underground publisher also formal printed items catalogue, openly advertising its name, address, and like the following:61 B?lisaire, par Marmontel, nouvelle ?dition augment?e, 8o, figures, Lausanne, 1784: 1 livre. Bible (la Sainte), 8?, 2 vol., Neuch?tel, 1771: 6 livres. Biblioth?que anglaise, ou recueil des romans anglais, 14 vol., 12?, Gen?ve, 1781: 15 livres. ses oeuvres Bonnet (M. Charles), compl?tes de physique et d'histoire naturelle, 4?, 8 vol., figures, Neuch?tel, 1782: 81 livres. in have been or The books the second catalogue may legal pirated, not or the French state. Those but they did offend religion, morality, in the first catalogue offended all three and therefore earned the title "livres philosophiques"?a very revealing trade name, which recurs in constantly the commercial correspondence of under ground publishers. was Les amours de How offensive actually this "philosophy"? et a. was on Chariot Toinette, work that high Vergennes' list of a and libelles, began with description of the queen masturbating then on to an account her with the comte moved of supposed orgies as d'Artois, dismissing the king follows:62

On sait bien que le pauvre Sire, ou Trois quatre fois condamn? Par la salubre facult?, Pour tr?s impuissance compl?te, satisfaire Ne peut Antoinette. De ce malheur bien convaincu, Attendu que son allumette N'est pas plus grosse qu'un f?tu; molle et Que toujours toujours croche, Il n'a de v . . . dans la que poche; ...... Qu'au lieu de f il est f Comme le feu pr?lat d'Antioche.

Crude stuff, but no less ineffective for its gross versification. A sim ilar work, which pretended to defend the queen, and various courtiers ministers as and well, by refuting the calumnies against her in minute, scabrous detail, explained that the libelles circulated through several strata of society:63

Un l?che courtisan les met en vers en ["ces infamies"] couplets, et, par le minist?re de la valetaille, les fait passer jusqu'aux halles et aux march?s 239 DAEDALUS

aux herbes. Des halles elles sont ? l'artisan ? son les port?es qui, tour, chez les ont et sans rapporte les seigneurs qui forg?es, lesquels, perdre vont ? se uns aux de temps, s'en l'Oeil-de-Boeuf demander ? l'oreille les et du ton de la consomm?e: Les avez-vous lues? autres, l'hypocrisie plus les voil?. Elles courent dans le peuple de Paris.

one some smut the at No doubt could pick up from gutter any pe in the overflowed the riod the history of Paris, but gutters during inundation worried Louis' chief of reign of Louis XVI; and the po as Lenoir "Les lice, J.-C.-P. Lenoir, because, put it, parisiens ? foi aux mauvais et avaient plus de propension ajouter propos aux faits im libelles qu'on faisait circuler clandestinement, qu'aux et ou du prim?s publi?s par ordre permission gouvernement."64 to of Lenoir later reported that his attempt suppress the circulation libelles "furent combattus par des hommes de la cour qui faisaient ou d'?crits scandaleux. La imprimer prot?geaient l'impression po ne et lice de Paris pouvait atteindre que les marchands colporteurs les vendant et d?bitant. On faisait enfermer les colporteurs ? la ne cette Bastille, et ce genre de punition mortifiait pas classe de souvent les vrais auteurs gens, pauvres mercenaires qui ignoraient . . . surtout des contre le et imprimeurs C'est ? l'?gard libelles gou vernement que les lois, dans les temps qui ont pr?c?d? la r?volution, The the libelles be furent impuissantes."65 police took seriously, cause a on and they had serious effect public opinion, public opin was a the ion powerful force in the declining years of Old Regime. itself it hired Although the monarchy still considered absolute, Brissot to it a hack pamphleteers like and Mirabeau give good name.66 It even attempted to manipulate rumors, for eighteenth "?motions century "bruits publics" produced eighteenth-century A riot out in for because of populaires"?riots. broke 1752, example, a were children to rumor that the police kidnapping working-class a some of the blood.67 provide literal blood bath for royal prince was and that made It the primitiveness of such "emotions" opinions to libelles. the regime vulnerable faith in the How badly the libelles damaged the public's legit is to because there is no imacy of the Old Regime difficult say, France. index to the public opinion of eighteenth-century Despite it the testimony of expert observers like Vergennes and Lenoir,68 its books might be argued that the public found dirty amusing, more. Libellistes had trash for without nothing piled up years bury could have been a cumulative effect ing anyone. But there also a after Louis XV. Louis' life that produced deluge private pro 240 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

the Vie de Louis which in vided plenty of material for priv?e XV, a turn set the tone for whole series of Vie priv?es about court fig ures. same These scurrilous works hammered at the points with such some at in case ferocity that they probably drove home, least the of a success to few leitmotivs: Du Barry's sexual story (from brothel a man a throne), Maupeou's despotism (his search for to build ten at a time machine that would hang innocent victims ) ; and the not a decadence of the court ( merely matter of luxury and adultery but also of impotence?in the libelles the high aristocracy could nor neither fight make love and perpetuated itself by extramarital more infusions from virile lower classes).69 Louis XVI, notoriously to consummate a unable his marriage for many years, made perfect a symbol of monarchy in the last stages of decay. Dozens of pam La on phlets like naissance du Dauphin d?voil?e (another Ver the gennes' list) provided dozens of revelations about real lineage of the heir to the throne. And then the Diamond Necklace Affair an to produced inexhaustible supply of muck be raked. A king a a was cuckolded by cardinal: What better finale to regime that even rumor finished?better than the of the warming pan that to a in on eve brought public opinion boil England the of 1688. is to the It easy underestimate importance of personal slander in it is to eighteenth-century French politics, because difficult ap at preciate that politics took place court, where personalities more was a counted than policies. Defamation standard weapon of as names news court cabales. And then now, made news, although did not make the newspapers. Rigorously excluded from legal pe riodicals, it circulated in pamphlets, nouvelles ? la main, and by sources nouvellistes de bouche?the real from which political jour in In such was re nalism originated France. crude media, politics a ported crudely?as game for kings, their courtiers, ministers, and mistresses. Beyond the court and below the summit of salon society, on the "general public" lived rumors; and the "general reader" saw as a of politics kind nonparticipant sport, involving villains and not a heroes but issues?except perhaps crude struggle between and evil or France Austria. good and He probably read his libelles as his or modern counterpart reads magazines comic books, but he not were did laugh them off; for the villains and heroes real to were for control of France. was him; they fighting Politics living folklore. And after La noires so, enjoying gazette titillating account of venereal im disease, buggery, cuckoldry, illegitimacy, and 241 D DALUS

potence in the upper ranks of French society, he may have been Du convinced and outraged by its description of Mme. Barry70

passant sans interruption du bordel sur le tr?ne, des bras des laquais dans ceux du monarque; culbutant le ministre le plus puissant et le plus le renversement de la constitution de la redoutable; op?rant monarchie; et son insultant ? la famille royale, ? l'h?ritier pr?somptif du tr?ne ? son luxe ses auguste compagne, par incroyable, par propos insolants, ? la nation enti?re mourant de ses les faim, par profusions vaines, par connues de tous les d?pr?dations rou?s qui l'entouraient; voyant ramper ? ses non seulement les du les mais les pieds grands royaume, ministres, du mais les ambassadeurs mais canonisant princes sang, ?trangers, l'Eglise ses scandales et ses d?bauches.

was more than the Contrat social. This dangerous propaganda sense to its rulers. It severed the of decency that bound the public ethics of little to Its disingenuous moralizing opposed the people on for all their the those of "les grands" top, because, obscenities, were even a libelles strongly moralistic. Perhaps they propagated came to full fruition the Revolu "bourgeois morality" that during not the term for or for the tion. "Bourgeois" may be proper it, rose in the Revolution either, but the "petits" who against the "gros" to a kind Gaulois Puritanism that had de Year II responded of well 1789. Gullible about the and of the veloped before plots purges their earlier Terror,71 they had gullibly assimilated legends from wives before libelles. Thus an aristocratic plot to kidnap bourgeois une de the Revolution: "Avez-vous jolie femme? Est-elle du go?t nouveau de fat en de quelque parvenu, quelque petit puissance, On vous la quelque talon rouge, par exemple? s?questre propre ment. Voulez-vous raisonner? On vous envoie aux Of gal?res."72 course can went on in minds of one only speculate about what the it have been such primitive readers, but might "d?sacralisation," at elite. this it is occurring levels well below the Without occurrence, hard to understand how the P?re Duchesne could have had such an or to believe in the touch could appeal how people brought up royal son foutu have read about "la t?te de veto femelle s?par?e de col in "?motion The had de grue"73 without erupting populaire." king some before H?bert's lost of his mystical touch with the people long the "louve autrichienne" and her cocu." How harangues about "gros no one can Les rois de France great a loss it was, say, but works like The ad r?g?n?r?s made the Bourbons look literally illegitimate. ministration feared those works, because it appreciated their power a of Louis XVI to make mockery of the monarchy. The ridiculing 242 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

a at a time was must have done great deal of damage when nobility Law still identified with "liqueur s?minale"74 and when the Salic a still required that the royal "race" be transmitted through magical out unbroken chain of males. The magic had gone of the Bourbons as by the reign of Louis XVI. Lenoir reported that the Revolution not to the approached he could get crowds applaud queen by pay had And ing them, although they cheered spontaneously earlier.75 in a 1789 Desmoulins described four-year-old being carried around on a the Palais-Royal the shoulders of street-porter, crying out, La Polignac exil?e ? cent lieues de Paris! Conde idem! Conti . . . idem! d'Artois idem! la reine !' je n'ose r?p?ter."76 The libelles had done their work all too well. to was taken outside The step from publishing libeling easily could the closed circles of the guild because nonguild publishers the and law in the Old meant only exist outside law, Regime priv The nuances of and ilege (leges privatae, private law).77 legality a broad illegality covered enough spectrum, however, for many to do a business. underprivileged bookdealers pretty legitimate contained several levels. Its near the The underground agents top may never have touched libelles, while those at the bottom handled de Neuch?tel nothing but filth. The Soci?t? typographique gen erally pirated only good, clean books like the works of Mme. Ric house of and his coboni, but the neighboring Samuel Fauche sons that tried to prodigal produced the very works Vergennes sup press in London. Fauche also printed the political and porno T Ma conversion ou le graphic writings of Mirabeau: Espion d?valis?, libertin de qualit?, Erotika Biblion, and Lettres de cachet.78 And yet ten in when the last volumes of the Encyclop?die appeared 1765, they bore the false imprint "A Neufchastel chez Samuel Faulche." The underground genres easily got mixed up, and underground dealers often moved from one level to another. Hard times forced as them into lower reaches of illegality; for they sank deeper into debt, they took greater chances in hopes of greater profits. The crisis of the 1780's might have produced precisely that result. some Ironically, Vergennes might have transformed rather inof fensive pirates into purveyors of libelles and actually increased the circulation of "livres philosophiques" by decreasing the relatively above-the-board traffic in contrefa?ons. The Soci?t? typo seems more graphique de Neuch?tel to have done business in libelles after 1783 than before Vergennes' crackdown.79 As the Revolution approached, provincial dealers who earlier had merely 243 D DALUS

a few ? caution more discharged false acquits may have speculated on amours shipments of works like Les de Chariot et Toinette and around more passed catalogues of "livres philosophiques." Or per their tastes in to like haps customers' changed response episodes the Diamond Necklace Afair. It is impossible at this point to tell or whether supply followed demand fairly neatly whether demand was influenced by what could be supplied. Reading habits could as a have evolved result of the peculiar conditions determining or literary output could have been the determining factor them selves; or each element could have reinforced the other. Whatever causes was combination of at work, the Old Regime put Chariot et Toinette, V?nus dans le clo?tre, d'Holbach, and Rousseau in the same same boxes and shipped them under the code-name. "Liv res to to it philosophiques" the dealers, "mauvais livres" the police, made little difference. What mattered was their common clandes tineness. There was in equality illegality; Chariot and Rousseau were brothers beyond the pale. in were re The very way which these works produced helped common duce them to the denominator of irreligion, immorality, no to and uncivility. The foreigners who printed them felt loyalty France, the Bourbons, or, often, the Catholic Church. The dealers in an sans who distributed them operated underworld of "bandits moeurs sans et pudeur." And the authors who wrote them had into a The often sunk Grub Street life of quasi-criminality. arch was in libelliste Charles Th?veneau de Morande brought up broth ma els and educated in prisons, and those mileux provided the terial for his writing.80 Perhaps the underground's impurities on it: cer rubbed off the books that passed through the message a state affairs! A that tainly suited the medium. But what of regime classified its most advanced philosophy with its most debased por was a its own under nography regime that sapped itself, that dug and that to into li ground, encouraged philosophy degenerate went it its belle. When philosophy under, lost self-restraint and on its commitment to the culture of those top. When it turned to against courtiers, churchmen, and kings, it committed itself own turning the world upside down. In their language, the livres coun philosophiques called for undermining and overthrowing. The a was an terculture called for cultural revolution?and ready to swer the call of 1789.

244 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

References

et Annales: 1. Marc Bloch, "Critique historique critique du t?moignage," ?conomies, soci?t?s, civilisations, 5 (1950), 5; reference supplied by Roberto Vivarelli.

2. Daniel Mornet, "Les enseignements des biblioth?ques priv?es (1750 1780)," Revue d'histoire litt?raire de la France, 17 (1910), 449-492.

3. he Although carefully qualified the conclusions in his article, Mornet made more statements in his He his sweeping later work. wrongly implied that research on the Social Contract was 1780: valid for the period after "De ce livre ? si avant redoutable, c'est peine Ton parle 1789," Daniel Mornet, au "L'influence de J.-J. Rousseau XVIIIe si?cle," Annales Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 8 (1912), 44. See also Daniel Mornet, Rousseau, Vhomme et Voeuvre (Paris: Boivin, 1950), pp. 102-1?6, and Daniel Mornet, Les origines intellectuelles de la R?volution Fran?aise, 5th ?d. (Paris: Colin, 1954), p. 229. Robert Derath? accepted Mornet's interpretation: "Les r?futations du Contrat Social au XVIIIe si?cle," Annales de la Soci?t? Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 32 (1950-1952), 7-12. And Alfred Cobban ex tended it: "Rousseau's Contrat social had no ascertainable influence before the Revolution and a one its see his only very debatable during course"; "The and the in Enlightenment French Revolution," reprinted Aspects of the French Revolution (New York: Braziller, 1968), p. 22. The latest extension is Joan McDonald, Rousseau and the French Revolution, 1762-1791 (Lon don: Athlone Press, 1965).

4. See the review R. A. devastating article by Leigh, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau," The Historical Journal, 12 ( 1969), 549-565.

5. treatise was too to sort of con Although Rousseau's abstruse provoke the troversy that followed Emile and his discourses ( except in Switzerland ), its all is to measure. influence, like ideological influence, difficult If repression is any indication of importance, it should be noted that the French state never formally condemned the Contrat social but did not permit it to circu late freely. The revolutionaries found it locked up with other seditious literature in the pilon of the Bastille: Biblioth?que de l'Arsenal, Ms. 10305, "le pilon de la Bastille."

was in S series and 6. Escarpit's book published the widely-read "Que ais-Je" an see has already gone through four editions. As example of its influence, en Actes du Louis Trenard, "La sociologie du livre France (1750-1789)," cinqui?me Congr?s national de la Soci?t? fran?aise de litt?rature compar?e (Paris, 1965), p. 145.

7. uni Robert Escarpit, Sociologie de la litt?rature, 4th ?d. (Paris: Presses versitaires de France, 1968), p. 46. It should be noted also that the de as a not cor velopment of writing m?tier in the eighteenth century did to of See respond the sociological phenomenon professionalization. the article "Professions" by Talcott Parsons in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, XII, 536-547. 245 DAEDALUS

8. David Pottinger, The French Book Trade in the Anden R?gime, 1500-1791 9. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958), p.

to name are: 9. The studies, be cited henceforth by of author, Fran?ois Furet, "La 'librairie' du royaume de France au 18e si?cle" in Livre et soci?t? dans la France du XVIIIe si?cle (Paris and The Hague, 1965); Jean Ehrard du 18e si?cle: le and Jacques Roger, "Deux p?riodiques fran?ais Journal et des Savants' 'les M?moires de Tr?voux.' Essai d'une ?tude quantitative," same savant et sa au XVIIIe in the volume; Daniel Roche, "Un biblioth?que de si?cle: les livres de Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan, secr?taire perp?tuel l'Acad?mie des sciences, membre de l'Acad?mie de B?ziers," Dix-huiti?me si?cle, 1 (1969), 47-88; Fran?ois Bluche, Les magistrats du Parlement de Paris au XVIIIe si?cle, 1715-1771 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1960), pp. an 291-296, which incorporates the findings of unpublished study by Les Paris au R?gine Petit, biblioth?ques des hommes du parlement de La au XVIIIe XVIIIe si?cle (1954); and Jean Meyer, noblesse bretonne 1156-1177. si?cle (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1966), pp.

10. Furet, p. 19.

11. Ehrard and Roger, p. 56.

473. 12. Mornet, "Les enseignements des biblioth?ques priv?es," p.

in "Le des savants sous l'Ancien 13. Quotation cited Raymond Birn, Journal savants 28 and in R?gime," Journal des (January-March 1965), p. Eug?ne et de en France 1859 Hatin, Histoire politique litt?raire la presse (Paris, 1861), II, 192.

dans la soci?t? du 14. Jean-Louis and Marie Flandrin, "La circulation du livre un travers Livre et 2 18e si?cle: sondage ? quelques sources," soci?t?, or at least un (Paris, 1970), 52-91. The Flandrins studied three private works that could not censored literary journals, which discussed philosophic in be mentioned the pages of quasi-official, heavily-censored periodicals show the like the Journal des savants. But the Flandrins' three journals Ehrard and discussed opposite bias from those studied by Roger. They that made news?and thus do not mainly sensational books?books repre sent the tastes their readers more than do the general literary of any savants M?moires de Tr?voux. Journal des and the Jesuit

livre en France." 15. Trenard, "La sociologie du

main in these was to find 16. The problem constructing graphs comparable In order units and statistics for them in the eight studies under analysis. to it was to redo some of the make comparisons possible, necessary in mathematics and to reconvert some of the data that appeared graph in the two in Livre et soci?t?. The all refer form articles published graphs different time to the mid-century, although they represent slightly spans. that not on them concern the various "arts" The subjects do appear mostly et arts." Because that catalogued under the heading "sciences heading was seemed too broad to mean much to the modern reader, it replaced of four by the subcategory "sciences." Composed subsubcategories?phy 246 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

and sique, m?decine, histoire naturelle, math?matiques*-the "sciences" in case of Mornet Bluche-Petit. could be computed every except those and no on Mornet gave statistics mathematical books, but the omission prob cent so not ably concerned much less than 1 per of all his titles and did affect the general pattern. Bluche did not differentiate "sciences" from "sciences et at arts" all. Athough the subcategory "sciences" varied widely in cases cent to cent other (from 10 per 70 per of the general category), it seemed reasonable to estimate it at half of Bluche's "sciences et arts" or 7 cent of the total?a indicated broken per rough approximation by to Mornet's covered lines that the reader may prefer discount. figures in which only "romans" and "grammaires" the category "belles-lettres," probably left out a little over half that category, judging from the distribu tacites. tion in Furet's permissions publiques and permissions The category would have between 10 cent and 20 cent of probably occupied per per is as cent the Mornet's total and indicated 15 per by broken lines. Unlike Mornet did not literature with as was the others, classify travel history, in Had his division practice the eighteenth century. he done so, "history" cent. would have expanded by another 1.5 per Meyer's "belles-lettres" also is in approximate and therefore appears broken lines. A studies graph combining Furet's of permissions publiques and per missions tacites was constructed from on computations based his original because it was that an data, hoped over-all picture of literary output would statistics two sources. emerge by combining from those very different as it this Suggestive is, composite bar graph contradicts all the others. For it on example, somewhat resembles the graph based Mornet's statistics, but Mornet would have the French reading far fewer religious works (6 per in relation to science and cent) (3 per cent) especially history (30 per cent than would whose cent ) Furet, combined graph shows 20 per religion, 9 cent cent per science, and 11 per history. Because all studies close to the classifica eight kept eighteenth-century tion not scheme, they do give much help to the modern reader in search of the Does associate Enlightenment. he Enlightenment with "philosophie," one et con of the eight subcategories under "sciences arts"? If so, he must tend with four sibling subsubcategories: philosophie ancienne, logique, and The two seem in morale, m?taphysique. last promising, but (except Roche's which two statistics, include additional subsubcategories) the data do not them from their two distinguish predecessors. The four studies that statistics on as a a provide "philosophie" whole suggest it comprised stable of small, portion eighteenth-century reading: the permissions publi ques fix it at 3 per cent ( 1723-1727), 3.7 per cent ( 1750-1754), and 4.5 per cent (1784-1788); the permissions tacites at 6 per cent (1750-1759), 5 per cent (1770-1774), and 6 per cent (1784-1788); the reviews in the Journal savants des at 3 per cent (1715-1719), 4 per cent (1750-1754), and 5 cent per ( 1785-1789 ) ; and it made up 7 per cent of Dortous de Mairan's Not much evidence for the library. spread of lumi?res. But then the En cannot be identified with of the cate lightenment any eighteenth-century or gories their subdivisions. It would also be to possible express Pottinger's study of two hundred authors in a bar a eighteenth-century graph, because he produced statisti 247 DAEDALUS

cal work as a model. as table of their publications, taking Mornet's But, writers is so and his explained above, Pottinger's selection of arbitrary so not mean statistics incomplete and unrepresentative that the graph would to very much. Nonetheless, for purposes of comparison, his findings ought be mentioned (Pottinger, The French Book Trade, pp. 30-31): religious 11 cent science 20 works per of the total produced by his authors, per cent, cent. history 20 per cent, law 2 per cent, belles-lettres 10 per

This is on as 17. figure based the Maggiolo study of literacy presented by Michel Pierre in de l'instruction ?l?men Fleury and Valmary "Les progr?s taire de Louis XIV ? Napol?on III d'apr?s l'enqu?te de Louis Maggiolo at (1877-1879)," Population (1957), pp. 71-92, estimating the population 26 million.

"La vie du livre 18. Julien Brancolini and Marie-Th?r?se Bouyssy, provinciale Marie "La ? la fin de l'Ancien R?gime" and Jean-Louis and Flandrin, un circulation du livre dans la soci?t? du 18e si?cle: sondage ? travers in Livre et 2 For a detailed quelques sources," both soci?t?, (Paris, 1970). discussion of these studies, see Robert Darnton, "In Search of the Enlight a a review enment: Recent Attempts to Create Social History of Ideas," in a issue of the Modern article that will apear forthcoming Journal of History.

is a in based 19. The remainder of this essay essentially "work progress" report on the first stages of research in the papers of the Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel in the Biblioth?que Publique de la Ville de Neuch?tel, Neu as were ch?tel, Switzerland, cited henceforth STN. Other important sources the of de of papers Jean-Charles-Pierre Lenoir, lieutenant-g?n?ral police Paris from 1774 to 1775 and 1776 to 1785, in the Biblioth?que municipale d'Orl?ans, Mss. 1421-1423; the Archives de la Chambre syndicale and Collection Anisson-Duperron papers of the Biblioth?que Nationale (espe cially fonds fran?ais, Mss. 21862, 21833, 22046, 22063, 22070, 22075, 22081, 22109, 22116, 22102); the papers of the Bastille and related papers on in Mss. the book trade the Biblioth?que de l'Arsenal ( especially 10305, 12446, 12454, 12480, 12481, 12517); and the Minist?re des affaires For in ?trang?res, Correspondance politique, Angleterre (Mss. 541-549). on route Kehl and as formation the underground book through Strasbourg to the relevant in the Archives opposed Neuch?tel and Pontarlier, papers were consulted but de la ville de Strasbourg (mainly Mss. AA 2355-2362) on turned out to be less useful than the others. Research publishing under now Le commerce des livres the Old Regime by has made J.-P. Belin, prohib?s ? Paris de 1750 ? 1789 (New York, no date, a Burt Franklin dated. For informa reprint of the original edition, Paris, 1913) somewhat most see the in tion about the important secondary works, bibliographies Nicole Herrmann-Mascard, La censure des livres ? Paris ? la fin de l'Ancien universitaires and R?gime, 1750-1789 (Paris: Presses de France, 1968), en au Madeleine Ventre, L'imprimerie et la librairie Languedoc dernier si?cle de VAncien R?gime, 1700-1789 (Paris and The Hague: Mouton, was Martin be 1958). The present essay written before the thesis of H.-J. came on au available, but it relies heavily his article, "L'?dition parisienne 248 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

XVIIe si?cle: quelques aspects ?conomiques," Annales: ?conomies, soci?t?s, 7 303-318. Another article civilisations, (July-September 1952), suggestive is L?on Cahen, "La librairie parisienne et la diffusion du livre fran?ais ? la fin du XVIIIe si?cle, Revue de synth?se, 17 ( 1939), 159-179.

20. A is the m?moire of P?risse typical example August 2, 1783, by Duluc, syndic of the Chambre syndicale of Lyons in the Biblioth?que Nationale, Mss. fran?ais 21833, fol. 96.

21. Revol to STN, July 4, 1784, STN Ms. 1205.

22. For the Soci?t? a example, typographique de Neuch?tel received letter on dated October 30, 1783, from Fran?ois Michaut, its agent the Swiss side of French est assez the border, which explained, "Votre partie chato ? raison cas uilleuse de la crainte que les porteurs ont qu'en de prise ils ne fussent saisis comme introducteurs d'ouvrages qui attaquent la religion ou traitent ? certaines en ... vous ne qui d?nigrer personnes place Si voulez vous introduire que des livres irr?pr?hensibles par leur contenu, les porteurs votre ces vous en nos demanderont garntie pour faits l?, et trouverez dans environs vous ou qui rendront le quintal ? 12 livres de France ? Pontarlier m?me une encore ? lieue plus loin s'il le fallait. Autre quoi il faut donner boire ? avant vous chaque porteur que de partir. Il faut observer, Messieurs, ce l? les font le mieux sans vous de la qu'? prix porteurs pour r?pondre some ma marchandise." Michaut observed with pride that "effectivement est assez position avantageuse pour les entr?es clandestines" but warned, "l'on trouve le de la route et dans long les villages des employ?s ambulants, l'on soit en arr?tent et qui malgr? que r?gle ?pluchent la charge d'un voiturier." He therefore stressed an or the need of having agent to dupe bribe the of employees the General Farm from the French side of the border: ne connais "Je personne de plus propre ? cela que le sieur Faivre," STN Ms. 1183. Faivre did not hesitate to recommend himself. On October he informed the vos 14, 1784, society, "Samedi prochain balles entreront. tant fait et ? ces J'ai promis porteurs que je leur donnerait de quoi boire et seront ce les a ? ... au mo qu'ils contents, qui ranim?s retourner Je suis ment de traiter avec un employ? des fermes pour nous laisser passer libre ment la nuit et m'indiquer les chemins o? l'on doit passer en s?ret?," STN Ms. 1148.

23. STN to J.-P. Brissot, April 29, 1781, STN Ms. 1109.

24. Mme. La to Noue STN, September 8, 1782, STN Ms. 1173. Mme. La Noue was sensitive to that complaints she overcharged and underprotected her customers. On December wrote to vous 9, 1780, she the STN, "Je prie M. vouloir bien aitres sur sort vos son entre tranquille le de objet. Lorsquils mais mains ne rien le mettre a ?v?nements. je neglige pour labry des davoir confiance en ma de travailler." But on Oblig? moy fa?on January 13, she confessed that six of its crates had at 1783, been seized her doorstep: "Le voituri? etoit suivi au cest a point quil trouv? icy la de charge dudit voituri? 3 de la ce sont personne prevott? qui emparr? des ditte 6 balles et de lettres de voiture na que le voituri? put leurs reffuz? par les menaces on fait et bien des quils luy amoy question pandant quinze jour pour 249 D DALUS

declarr? les a personnes qui apartenoit les dittes balles et dou elle venoit me aquoy je suis reffuz?," ibid.

25. Paul de Pourtal?s to STN, June 23, 1784, STN Ms. 1199.

26. See the dossier in On Desauges the Biblioth?que de l'Arsenal, Ms. 12446. wrote to his April 4, 1775, Desauges p?re dyspeptically from the Bastille who had son en son, just been released, "il faut prendre mal patience. Je t'avouerai franchement que je m'ennuie ? la mort." The Desauges dossier in Ms. the Neuch?tel, 1141, shows sharp practices of underground book dealers at their most cutthroat.

27. Mme. J. E. Bertrand to STN, October 7, 1785, STN Ms. 1121.

28. to J.-F. Bornand STN, August 10, 1785, STN Ms. 1124. Poin?ot occasion books from to ally smuggled Versailles Paris for Desauges at twelve livres the which was with quintal, apparently cheap compared the charges of Mme. La Noue: three livres per "gros objet," which her nephew delivered to on the see appointed hiding places outskirts of Paris ( Desauges to STN, November Ms. 1141 24, 1783, and Mme. La Noue to STN, June 22, 1781, Ms. 1173).

29. his Bornand had to to with Among tasks, try cope the "verbiages" of Mme. La Noue to ruses (Bornand STN, February 19, 1785, Ms. 1124), the of une Poin?ot and Desauges, and the impecuniousness of authors: "C'est triste ressource que les auteurs pour l'argent" (Bornand to STN, March 9, 1785, ibid.).

30. Giles "French Barber, Royal Decrees Concerning the Book Trade 1700 1789," Australian Journal of French Studies, 3 ( 1966), 312.

31. A. L. O. O. J. Jourdan, Decrusy, and F. A. Isambert, eds., Recueil g?n?ral des anciennes lois fran?aises (Paris, 1822-1833), XXI, 230.

32. Ibid., p. 218.

33. Ibid., p. 217.

V. the French 34. George Taylor, "Noncapitalist Wealth and the Origins of Revolution," American Historical Review, 72 ( 1967 ), 469-496.

M?moire sur vexations et im 35. P. J. Blondel, les qu'exercent les libraires de see primeurs Paris, ?d. Lucien Faucou (Paris, 1879); especially pp. 18-25 and 45.

anciennes 36. Quotations from Recueil g?n?ral des lois fran?aises, XXV, 109, 110 119, and respectively.

37. Ibid., p. 109.

38. Because of the complicated problems of dating Diderot's Lettre, relating it to earlier documents that influenced Diderot's argument, and establishing a correct version of the text, it is important to read the Lettre in the critical even edition by Jacques Proust (Paris: Colin, 1962). But the old edition in Diderot's Oeuvres compl?tes, ed. J. Ass?zat and Maurice Tourneux 250 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

a note someone in Direction de la (Paris, 1876), XVIII, 6, included by the Librairie (d'H?mery?) which observed that Diderot wrote the Lettre et sur . . . "d'apr?s le conseil des libraires des mat?riaux que M. Le Breton lui a sont fournis, et dont les principes absolument contraires ? la bonne some administration des privil?ges." Although the Lettre contains heartfelt statements is twisted about liberty and the tribulations of authors, its logic to favor it the publishers and reproduces the old arguments advanced by It is to not guild. therefore difficult accept Brunei's claim that Diderot did write the Lettre either as an or as a Breton ally paid propagandist of Le and the other privileged publishers: Lucien Brunei, "Observations critiques et sur un litt?raires opuscule de Diderot," Revue d'histoire litt?raire de la France, 10 (1903), 1-24.

39. The code of 1777 weakened some of the Parisian guild's power by giving the to sell own works for two authors right their and by providing public in Paris It book sales every year. favored provincial publishers by permitting to them print the increasing number of books that it caused to fall into the domain?an that had in public acknowledgment of the fact they engaged activities for illegal lack of "un moyen l?gitime d'employer leurs presses," anciennes Recueil g?n?ral des lois fran?aises, XXV, 109. The edicts of 1777 to cesser thus attempted "faire la rivalit? qui divise la librairie de Paris et celle des la faire tourner au de cette provinces, de profit branche impor tante du commerce, et de former de tous les libraires une m?me famille n'aura m?me 119-120. But qui plus qu'un int?r?t," ibid., pp. this rivalry went too to be settled such small concessions to the deep by provincial who continued to dealers, protest against exploitation by the Parisians the throughout 1780's. The 1777 code also extended and strengthened the in the because "S.M. a reconnu serait guild system provinces, qu'il dangereux de laisser subsister les isol?es dans un imprimeries ?tat d'ind?pendance qui facilite les 112. So the y abus," ibid., p. reorganization of the guilds did not weaken them or their substantially impair policing function. 40. sur D.-J. Gar?t, M?moires historiques la vie de M. Suard, sur ses ?crits et sur le XVIIIe si?cle (Paris, 1820), I, 274.

41. Biblioth?que Nationale, Mss. fran?ais 21833, foil. 87-88. This account of tax French and tariff legislation is derived from several documents in Ms. 21833, particularly foil. 89-91 and 129-140.

42. The tariff was a constant legislation theme in the commercial correspon dence of the Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel for the first half of the 1770's. The even sent one of its on a business society partners trip through eastern France to sell to find new of fraudulent books, ways making ship ments, and to learn as much as about tariff possible policy. According to the instructions in his he was to seek out M. travel-log, "J. Bruysset, homme froid et habile: Io S'entretenir avec lui de la en librairie fran?aise g?n?ral, savoir de lui si en effet sera l'imp?t lev? ou diminu?," STN, Ms. 1058, "Carnet de E. voyage, 1773, J. Bertrand." The Bruysset house was one of the most effective the lobbyists against tariff, judging from the memoranda in the Mss. Biblioth?que Nationale, fran?ais 21833, especially foil. 87-88 and 129-140. The tariff the damaged illegal trade, because pirated works 251 D DALUS

were at least at the under usually shipped through legal channels, border, ? caution false acquits and therefore paid duty.

43. Mss. This m?moire Biblioth?que Nationale, fran?ais, 21833, foil. 87-88. as it were sou was reads though the work of Panckoucke. One per gathering the normal printing charge of the Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel, in seems to resulted from whose flourishing business the late 1770's have and the condi the combination of France's favorable tariff policy cheap tions in of printing Switzerland.

a detailed that 44. Ibid., foil. 111-115. The dealer showed, by very argument, a crate would cost him 61 15 sous in extra six-hundred-pound livres, cause enormous and charges, would delays damage through mishandling, it for him to collect insurance for and would make impossible damaged shipments.

45. Ibid., fol. 70.

et ceux en 46. Ibid., foL 107: "Les libraires ?loign?s de Paris, de Lyon partic sur les envois devait leur fait ulier, ont le champ contremand? qu'on faire, ?taient en annul? leurs et r?trograder les ballots qui route, march?s, aux ils se voient maintenant renonc? entreprises d'impression pour lesquelles sans de active entre d?bouch?s. Enfin, il n'existe d?j? plus correspondance les libraires fran?ais et les libraires ?trangers."

47. J. F. Bornand to STN, April 12, 1784, STN Ms. 1124.

48. J. F. Bornand to STN, April 9, 1784, ibid. to ibid. 49. J. F. Bornand STN, February 19, 1785,

a in 1785: 50. STN to Garrigan, bookdealer Avignon, August 23, "Nous sans sur de notre partageons doute bien sinc?rement le regret l'interruption vous nous l'honneur de correspondance que voulez bien t?moigner par cause votre lettre du 10 de ce mois, mais vous n'ignorez pas que la fatale ne en des ordon peut ?tre attribu? qu'? la rigueur toujours subsistante nances concernant l'introduction de la librairie ?trang?re dans le royaume. sont encore sur un ? cet nous ne Les choses tel pied ?gard, que pouvons faire entrer une balle Libri par le bureau de notre fronti?re qu'en prenant un d'aller en acquit ? caution pour Paris, o? les v?tres seraient oblig?s faisant ainsi un d?tour immense et subissant l'examen de la Chambre syn ce STN Ms. 1110. dicale Parisienne, qui est absolument impraticable,"

Ms. 1110. 51. STN to Mme. J. E. Bertrand, early October 1785, STN

an center 52. The archives in Strasbourg, important of the clandestine trade, in in a determined effort complement those Neuch?tel that they show by the to in government stop traffic prohibited works. Strasbourg's pr?teur royal seizures received frequent reports from local officials about of illegal across he received strict shipments from the publishers the Rhine; and also own sceaux orders from his superior, the garde des ( letter of April 26, 1786, in Archives de la Ville de Strasbourg, Ms. AA2356 ) : "La librairie proscrite nos vous par lois environne de toute part; et elle p?n?trera par les moyens 252 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

. . . que vous ne lui aurez pas interdits, si vous ne les lui interdisez pas tous vous vous et Je exhorte donc fortement, le magistrat de votre ville, ? prendre les mesures in seem to convenables." Despite this rigor, printers Kehl have a as as got great many books?political pamphlets and libelles well Beau marchais' Voltaire?through the traps laid for them in Strasbourg. The town's have semiautonomy, guaranteed by the capitulations of 1681, may it to made relatively easy penetrate.

53. See and Robert La Furet, p. 8, Estivals, statistique bibliographique de la France sous la au monarchie XVIIIe si?cle (Paris and The Hague: Im primerie nationale, 1965), p. 296.

54. Biblioth?que Nationale, Ms. fran?ais 21833, fol. 107.

55. Ibid., fol. 108; see also foil. 99-104.

to 56. Vergennes d'Adh?mar, May 12, 1783, Minist?re des affaires ?trang?res, Correspondance politique, Angleterre, Ms. 542. The details of "cette machi nation et as it d'intrigues, de cupidit?, de fourberie," Vergennes called to (Vergennes Lenoir, May 24, 1783, ibid.)?and which I plan to recount in a later work?can be found in the series 541-549.

de 57. Biblioth?que l'Arsenal, Ms. 10305. The inventory also included Le Vie gazetier cuirass?, L'espion d?valis?, priv?e de Louis XV, Le diable dans un and other of b?nitier, classics the London School of libellistes. It speci fied that they had been shipped to some of the customers of the Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel, notably Poin?ot, Blaizot, and Mme. La Noue. Poin?ot himself drew up the inventory.

58. For the conventional view that the was severe in government's policy and in see theory permissive practice, J.-P. Belin, Le commerce des livres prohib?s ? Paris de 1750 ? 1789 (New York, no date, a Burt Franklin re print of the original edition, Paris, 1913) and the restatement of Belin's interpretation in Nicole Herrmann-Mascard, La censure des livres ? Paris ? la fin de l'ancien r?gime, 1750-1789 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, Both books 1968). dismiss the June 12, 1783, orders in two sentences?the same sentences, curiously, almost word for word (Belin, p. 45; Herrmann Mascard, p. 102).

59. It also serve as a corrective to Marxist treat might the tendency to the as One version of this Enlightenment bourgeois ideology. tendency argues that ideas such as social contract, individualism, liberty, and equality before the law derived from capitalist methods of exchange, which involve con tractual between free and individuals: Lucien obligations legally " equal Goldmann, "La pens?e des 'Lumi?res,' Annales: ?conomies, soci?t?s, 22 752-770. civilisations, ( 1967), Considering the multitude of writers who such ideas before the expressed development of capitalism, this argument seems less than its which relates convincing opposite, the Enlightenment to a tradition of aristocratic liberalism: Denis Richet, "Autour des origines lointaines de la R?volution et id?ologiques fran?aise: ?lites despotisme," ibid., 24 (1969), 1-23.

60. STN, Ms. 1108.

253 DAEDALUS

the 61. Ibid. In contrast, the manuscript catalogue offered the following under ou letter "B": "La belle allemande, les galanteries de Th?r?se, 1774; Bijoux Le bon indiscrets par Diderot, 8? figures; Le bonheur, po?me par Helv?tius; ou aux sens, id?es naturelles, oppos?es id?s surnaturelles."

62. in A. Van et conteurs au XVIIIe Reprinted Bever, Contes gaillards si?cle notes for his (Paris: Daragon, 1906), pp. 280-281. In that he assembled the former Lenoir associated memoirs, lieutenant general of police J.-C.-P. this work with a widespread outbreak of libeling in the 1780's (Biblio Ms. moeurs du successeur de th?que municipale d'Orl?ans, 1423): "Les nouveau ce Louis Quinze ?tant inattaquables, le roi fut inaccessible de c?t? ? la calomnie les ann?es de son mais on pendant premi?res r?gne, en sa et commen?a 1778 ? le diffamer du c?t? de faiblesse, les premi?res contre sa ne tr?s calomnies qui furent ourdies personne pr?lud?rent que de ceux peu de mois de la m?chancet? contre la reine. M. de Maurepas, qui jusques l? avait ?t? fort insouciant touchant des ?pigrammes et des chansons faites contre lui, M. de Maurepas, qui s'amusait de tous les libelles, de toutes et et les anecdotes priv?es scandaleuses qu'on fabriquait imprimait avec eut avis eux une impunit?, que des ?crivains avaient fait entre sorte de avaient une au les sp?culation, qu'ils li? correspondance moyen de laquelle uns envoyaient de Paris les histoires courantes et fournissaient des titres et ceux des mat?riaux ? qui les composaient et faisaient imprimer ? La Haye et ? en en Londres, d'o? ils les faisaient entrer France petite quantit? par Un an des voyageurs ?trangers. secr?taire d'ambassade d'Angleterre lui en un non?a qu'on devait incessament y introduire France libelle abomin able intitul? Les amours de Chariot et d'Antoinette."

63. Le portefeuille d'un talon rouge contenant des anecdotes galantes et secr?tes de la cour de the Le du France, reprinted under title coffret bibliophile no 22. (Paris, date), p. Lenoir's manuscripts confirm this account (Biblio Ms. 1422 : "Il maintenant th?que municipale d'Orl?ans, ) n'est plus douteux de et que c'?taient MM. Montesquiou, de Cr?qui, de Champcents, d'autres courtisans, qui de concert avec Beaumarchais, Chamfort, et autres ?crivains vivants encore avaient compos? des libelles contre la cour, contre les et m?me contre ceux est ministres, des ministres qui les employaient. Il o? plus que probable que Beaumarchais avait compos?, port? ? Londres, il a ?t? un libelle avec intitul? Les amours de imprim?, figures grav?es Chariot et d'Antoinette."

64. Ibid.

seem to 65. Ibid. Lenoir's remarks might contradict the above interpretation a on but refer to about crackdown underground publishing, they primarily the circulation of libelles inside Paris, not to the traffic from outside France to seems to have been a considerable the capital. There domestic production to of libelles, which survived the police's attempts impound them because immunities of "lieux like the of influential "protection" and the privil?gi?s" not Ms. 1421. Palais-Royal, where the police could penetrate. See ibid.,

66. See Robert Darnton, "The Grub Street Style of Revolution: J.-P. Brissot, Police Spy," Journal of Modern History, 40 ( 1968), 320-321. 254 Reading, Writing, and Publishing

Lenoir to rumor success: 67. later tried investigate the and the riot but without Biblioth?que municipale d'Orl?ans, Ms. 1422.

68. Lenoir his most in an "De developed observations fully essay entitled l'administration de l'ancienne police concernant les libelles, les mauvaises satires et leurs auteurs ou chansons, coupables, d?linquants, complices adh?rents," ibid.

ou 69. [Charles Th?veneau de Morande], Le gazetier cuirass?: anecdotes de cour de ? cent la Bastille ? scandaleuses la France ( "imprim? lieues de est si l'enseigne de la libert?," 1771), p. 92: "La nation fran?aise mal sont sans On assure constitu?e aujourd'hui, que les gens robustes prix: d?bute ? Paris est aussi cher les femmes qu'un laquais qui pay? par qui servent race en Si ce s'en qu'un cheval de Angleterre. syst?me prend faveur, une ou In Le g?n?ration deux suffiront pour r?tablir les temp?raments." in libertin de qualit?, reprinted L'oeuvre du Comte de Mirabeau, ?d. im Guillaume Apollinaire (Paris, 1910), Mirabeau described aristocratie in detail. a morality great After recounting depraved duchess' abandonment of her un et lover, he remarked (p. 232), "Elle l'a remplac? par prince, au se eut r?ellement, quant moral, ils convenaient; pour le physique, elle ses laquais: c'est le pain quotidien d'une duchesse."

un 70. [Charles Th?veneau de Morande], La gazette noire par homme qui n'est blanc: ou oeuvres du cuirass? ? cent pas posthumes gazetier ("imprim? lieues la ? trois cent de Bastille, lieues des Pr?sides, ? cinq cent lieues des Cordons, ? mille lieues de la Sib?rie," 1784), pp. 194-195.

71. See Richard Cobb, "Quelques aspects de la mentalit? r?volutionnaire," Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, 6 (1959), 81-120, and "The Revolutionary Mentality in France," History, 42 (1957), 181-196.

72. La 7. For a rumors gazette noire, p. similar example of such about the use of en see promiscuous police by "gens place" M. de Lescure, ed., Correspondance secr?te in?dite sur Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, la Cour et la ville de 1777 ? 1792 (Paris: H. Pion, 1866), II, 157-158.

73. The subheadline of the account of the in La P?re queen's guillotining Duchesne.

74. Pierre Goubert, L'Ancien R?gime (Paris: Colin, 1969), I, 152.

75. Biblioth?que municipale d'Orl?ans, Ms. 1423.

76. Quoted in Frantz Funck-Brentano and Paul d'Estr?e, Les nouvellistes (Paris: Hachette, 1905), p. 304.

77. L'Ancien 152. The connection Goubert, R?gime, p. between privilege and is monopoly brought out clearly in the first definition of "privil?ge" given in the Dictionnaire de l'Acad?mie fran?aise (Paris. 1778 ) : "Facult? accord? ? un ou ? une communaut? ou particulier de faire quelque chose de jouir de quelque avantage ? l'exclusion des autres."

78. See De Rousseau ? Charly Guyot, Mirabeau: p?lerins de M?tiers et de 89 proph?tes (Neuch?tel and Paris: Victor Attinger, 1936), chap. 4. 255 D DALUS

79. the in Although increased severity the policing of the book trade cut down on its business in France, the Soci?t? typographique de Neuch?tel still did its best to supply works like the following, which it entered in its "Livre de commission" (STN Ms. 1021, foil. 173-175) after receiving an order from Bruzard a de Mauvelain, clandestine dealer in Troy es, dated June 16, 1784: "6 Les petits soupers de l'H?tel de Bouillon; 6 Le diable dans un b?nitier; 6 remon L'espion d?valis?; 1 Correspondance de Maupeou; 1 Recueil de trances au Roi Louis 2 XV; Memoirs de Madame de Pompadour; 2 Vie priv?e de Louis XV; 12 Fastes de Louis XV; 6 Histoire philosophique 8?, 10 vol; 6 Erotika biblion 8?; 1 La Mettrie; 1 Boulanger complet, antiquit?, et 1 Christianisme, despotisme; Helv?tius complet; 6 Lettres de Julie ? ou Calasie, tableau du libertinage ? Paris; 1 la derni?re livraison de Jean 6 Jacques 12?; Chronique scandaleuse; 6 Les petits soupers du comte de Vergennes; 6 Le passe-temps, d'Antoinette."

80. See Paul Robiquet, Th?veneau de Morande: ?tude sur le XVIIIe si?cle (Paris: A. Quantin, 1882).

256