The ''Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu'à nos jours'' ("Secret Memoirs Serving as a History of the

Republic of Letters The Republic of Letters (''Res Publica Litterarum'' or ''Res Publica Literaria'') was the long-distance intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and the Americas. It fostered communication among the intellectuals of th ...

in France from 1762 until Our Days") is an anonymous chronicle of events that occurred between 1762 and 1787. Historian Dena Goodman thinks it started as a manuscript newsletter emanating from Paris. It was first published in London as a multi-volume set from 1781 to 1789. Thus, although the entries bear exact dates, they were not published until long after the events they describe. The ''Mémoires secrets'' offer an abundance of details about literary life in the 18th century: "At the center of the most brilliant debates for a quarter of a century, whether concerning the battle against the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, the opposition'' etween the Parlement of Paris and the French King', well-known affairs such as the affair of the diamond necklace, or the emergence of new aesthetics such as the

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

drama, Gluckist opera, Shakespeare's works, they gave an account, almost from day to day, in manners sometimes engaged and sometimes distanced, indignant, or sarcastic, of ephemeral or profound movements of public opinion in the course of constituting itself."Équipe Lire XVIII° Grenoble, ''Les Mémoires secrets dits de Bachaumont: édition et réévaluation'' (in press).

The authors

The work is attributed to Louis Petit de Bachaumont (1690–1771), but it is unlikely that he was the actual author, since all volumes describe events which occurred after his death. It is currently attributed to Mathieu-François Pidansat de Mairobert and Mouffle d’Angerville, but it is likely that the text is the work of multiple authors.

The text

There are eighteen volumes, each of which covers one or two years of events. The text consists of short, anonymous reports, each with an exact date, on political and cultural events. Some volumes have an "Additions" section which contains reports from prior years. Political and social figures, literary figures, actors, artists, musicians, scientists, doctors, and royal mistresses are discussed. Some of the most frequently-mentioned individuals are

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

, Linguet, Necker, the Duke of Orléans, La Harpe, Rousseau, Marmontel, Turgot, the Comte d'Artois, the duc de Richelieu, and Cardinal de Rohan. In 1830, Ravenel issued a critical edition of the first four volumes and Paul Lacroix made an abridged edition in 1858. An alphabetical index of the authors and people cited in the ''Mémoires secrets'' appeared in Brussels and Paris in 1866: it is entitled ''Table alphabétique des auteurs et personnages cités dans les "Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la république des lettres en France" rédigés par Bachaumont'' and is an indispensable tool for locating these within the work. The entire text is available online from the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. A new printed edition is being prepared.

Notes

Sources

* Note by Tawfik Mekki Berrada in the ''Dictionnaire des Journaux,'' 1600-1789, published by J. Sgard, 1991.

External links

The ''Mémoires secrets'' (in Gallica)

Alphabetical Index of Authors and Persons Cited (in Gallica)

Information on new critical edition, forthcoming
{{DEFAULTSORT:Memoires Secrets 1781 non-fiction books 18th-century French literature 18th-century history books 1781 in literature 1781 introductions Book series introduced in the 1780s French-language chronicles about France Works of unknown authorship Cultural depictions of Charles X of France Cultural depictions of Voltaire