Publications

Hanley, A biographical dictionary of French censors

William Hanley, A biographical dictionary of French censors 1742-1789. ISBN 2-84559-031-8, 2005, 210 x 265 mm, xii + 400 pages, 65 illustrations, broché, prix 160 euros

Publications du Centre international d'étude du XVIIIe siècle, 17

Under the ancien régime the law required that books be authorised by the state in order to be published legally in France. Among the most important functionaries involved in the screening of ideas were the primary agents of this preventive censorship, the royal censors. Given that their verdicts were normally accepted by their superiors they played a crucial role in the policing of thought and are of vital importance in any consideration of the dissemination of thought in the Age of Enlightenment.

This biographical dictionary of the 367 men who served as censors between 1742 (the year in which their names began to appear regularly in the Almanach royal) and 1789 (the year in which their activities ceased), a particularly crucial period in the struggle for freedom of expression. It seeks to present as complete a picture of them as possible. The entries are organised under the following headings: name, birth and parents, civil state, career, death, posterity, reports on works examined, signature, further references, and notes.

To a large extent the originality of this project lies in its sources. In the interests of precision and completeness a thorough search of archives, manuscripts, and eighteenth-century printed books and journals has been completed in order to base the biographical sketches on primary sources pertaining to the major events in the censors' lives. A great deal of material has been located at the Archives nationales, especially in the Minutier central des notaires; information has been collected from the archives of most French departments, numerous towns, a number of foreign countries, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

This work will serve as a valuable research tool. For the first time the names of all the censors who served during the period are brought together. The results eliminate the confusion or ignorance which surrounds many of them and some are identified for the first time. New material is made available concerning their public and private lives. Errors are corrected and the process by which the printed word was scrutinised is clarified. Of particular interest is the insight gained into the prevailing values of the establishment and into the attitudes and techniques of those who sought to subvert them. Though the censors played a critical and sometimes surprising role in the struggle for the minds of the nation, their place in the history of ideas has not been fully appreciated. This work enhances our perception of their contribution to the ideological life of eighteenth-century France and our grasp of the structures within which they worked.

A biographical dictionary of French censors will be completed in four or five volumes.

 

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