Revolution in Print: The Press in France, 1775-1800 PDF
Preview Revolution in Print: The Press in France, 1775-1800
f ,.;., .!. ;i '*. REVOLUTION IN PRINT RtrVOLUTNON [N PRNNT THE PRESS IN FRANCE 177 5-1800 ROBERT DARNTON AND DANIEL ROCHE, Editors UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON IN COLLABORATION WITH THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England @ 1989 by The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Printed in the United States of America z Z 4 5 6 7 8I For illustrated items not included in the Exhibition Checklist, the legend includes full citations and French titles. In legends for items included in the Exhibition Checklist, citations have been abbreviated and cross-references to the checklist have been provided. Unless otherwise indicated in the legends, photographs were provided by the institution credited. All photographs of items from The New York Public Library are by Robert D. Rubic. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Revolution in print : the press in France, r775-r8oo / Robert Darnton and Daniel Roche, editors. p. cm. rsnN o-5zo-o643o-5 (alk. paper). IsrN o-5zo-o643r-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) r. Printing-France-History-r8th century. z. Publishers and publishing-France-History-l8th century. 3. Press-France- History- r 8th century. 4. France-History-Revolution, r 789- r 7gg- Literature and the revolution. 5. Books and reading-France- History-r8th century. 6. Revolutionary literature-Publishing- France-History-r8th century. 7. Revolutionary literature, French- History and criticism. I. Darnton, Robert. IL Roche, Daniel. zr44.Rb r98g 686.2'o944-dcr9 88-2o744 CONTENTS Foreword vll Acknowledgments xl Introduction ROBERT DARNTON xiii PART ONE PREREVOLUTIONARY CONDITIONS Censorship and the Publishing Industry DANIEL ROCHE 3 Philosophy Under the Cloak ROBERT DARNTON 27 Malesherbes and the Call for a Free Press RAYMOND BIRN 5o PART TWO REVOLUTION IN THE PRINTING TRADES Economic Upheavals in Publishing CARLA HESSE 69 CONTENTS Printers and Municipal Politics PIERRE CASSELLE 98 Agitation in the Work Force PHILIPPE MINARD Lo7 A Provincial Perspective MICHEL VERNUS r24 PART THREE THE PRODUCTS OF THE PRESS Journals: The New Face of News JEREMY D. POPKIN r4L Pamphlets: Libel and Political Mythology ANTOINE DE BAECQUE r65 Books: Reshaping Science JEAN DHOMBRES 177 Almanacs: Revolutionizing a Traditional Genre LISE ANDRIES 203 Prints: Images of the Bastille ROLF REICHARDT 223 Songs: Mixing Media LAURA MASON 252 Ephemera: Civic Education Through Images LEITH JAMES 27o- Exhibition Checklist 291 Notes 313 Contributors 349 FOREWORD Few events in human history have affected not only the course of the nation that initiated them but also the lives of virtually every people of the globe. The French Revolution was one of those events, for it espoused for the first time in the history of the west a truly universal civilization, transcending cultural, national, ethnic, social, and racial boundaries by proclaiming the fundamental and inviolable rights of all peoples of the world ro freedom and equality. Insofar as it translated these ideals into a living reality, the French Revolution can be said to have founded the modern era, to have given shape for the first time to the principles and institutions by which we now define our purposes and measure our achievements in public life. For these reasons it is an event whose bicentennial is worthy of commemora- tion, not only by the nation of its origin but by all the world, particularly that young nation, our own, which shared so intimately in the formulation and realization of its ideas and ideals. The New York Public Library rakes great pleasure in sponsoring Reuolu- tion in Print: The Press in France, 1775-fioo as part of its efforts to com- memorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. The book, and the exhibition with which it is associated, would nor have been possible without the generous and enlightened assistance of Professor Robert Darnton of Princeton university. In the summer of 1986 I met with him to discuss an appropriate way for the Library ro participate in the inrernational cele- bration of the French Bicentennial. Professor Darnton recalled that in the rg6os as a graduate srudent researching political ideology in the pre- revolutionary period, he had had the good fortune to become acquainted with an enthusiastic member of rhe New York Public Library staff who kindly granted him access to the Library's vast collection of uncataloged pamphlets from the period of the French Revolution. Darnton had been vll FOREWORD impressed by the range and depth of the collection, which included a sub- stantial number of items not available in other repositories, including the Bibliothdque Nationale. We agreed that the Bicentennial offered a unique opportunity to make the riches of the Library's revolutionary collection known to the public. Our meeting concluded with the decision to mount a major exhibition, "Revolution in Print: France, 1789," which would celebrate the freeing of the press and the role of printing in the French Revolution. Professor Darnton saw the exhibition and this companion book as an opportunity to share recent scholarship in French cultural history of the revolutionary pe- riod by American, French, and other international scholars and to stimu- late interest in the extraordinary holdings, both cataloged and uncataloged, to be found in almost every division of the Library. Under his guidance, the original proposal for an exhibition and accompanying book has expanded to include related exhibitions by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Music Division and Dance Collection of the Perform- ing Arts Research Center; a series of public programs; and, in conjunction with the American Library Association, a condensed traveling version of "Revolution in Print," which will tour nationally to major urban libraries. The Library owes Professor Darnton a debt of deep gratitude for his vision and effort, which have informed every aspect of our institutionwide cele- bration of the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. Professor Darnton's first step in organizing the project was to invite Pro- fessor Daniel Roche of the University of Paris, the distinguished French scholar of eighteenth-century culture, to collaborate with him as co-curator of the exhibition and co-editor of this book. The Library is grateful to Pro- fessor Roche for his contribution. Carla Hesse, Assistant Professor at Rut- gers University, has also performed an invaluable service as the Research Curator for the exhibition. An advisory committee of eminent American and French historians and scholars was formed to refine the intellectual content of the exhibition, and I wish to thank them for their participation: Keith Baker, Raymond Birn, Elizabeth Eisenstein, Lynn Hunt, Darline Levy, Henri-Jean Martin, Linda Nochlin, Robert Palmer, Jeremy Popkin, Michel Vovelle, Isser Woloch, and Denis Woronoff. Diantha D. schull, Manager of Exhibitions, has shaped and directed the Library's overall program to commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. Without her leadership such a comprehensive program of international collaboration would not have been possible. The staff of the Exhibitions Program Office deserve strong recognition for their efforts on behalf of the exhibition and this publication, and in particularJeanne Born- stein, Research Coordinator. It is our hope that this exhibition will facilitate research and the ex- vlll
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