Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant: Risks and Rewards

Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant was a periodical written by Camille Desmoulins in which he criticizes the absolute French Monarchy. He calls for a revolution drawing inspiration from Brabant (a revolution that had recently started and was still ongoing). The weekly periodical lasted for two years resulting in eight volumes spanning 104 issues. This copy is owned by the University of Pennsylvania consisting of the first, third, fourth, and sixth volumes and is housed in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.

Overview and Background

Portrait of Camille Desmoulins circa 1790

Camille Desmoulins was a French author, politician, and proponent of the revolution. He's known for instigating the Storming of Bastille, his criticism of the Reign of Terror, and for respectively being classmate and friend of Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton. He worked mostly as a lawyer until the inception of the Revolution becoming captivated by it leading to Desmoulins beginning his career of writing as a political journalist. As one can imagine he was renowned throughout France for his eloquence in both speech and writing along with his passion. His works are all widely disseminated and consumed. He was also a large advocate of linguistic reform to and simpler language in official documents and public discourse as to allow for participation from as many people as possible. He was accused of being a counter revolutionary for his disagreement with the direction of the revolution after the king had been removed and was sent to the guillotine in 1794 soon followed by his wife.

His work writing Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant helped to lift him out of the poverty created by his dwindling career as a lawyer. Its popularity remained constant through every installment. This was a credit towards his views on reform and linguistic simplicity to allow more sharing of information. He wrote in a style that could reach and consumed by more people using a combination of satire, commentary, political cartoons and illustrations, polemics, and basic reporting of current events. These publications were the fruits of a revolution. It drew upon the excitement of the revolutionaries in Brabant citing their eagerness and zest.

Historical Context: French Revolution (Late 1700s)

The Storming of Bastille July 14, 1789

The French Revolution was a pivotal period in the late 18th century. It was fueled by a complex culmination of social, political, and economic issues which converged simultaneously thanks to orators and writers such as Camille Desmoulins. This transformative event began juxtaposed by Enlightenment ideas, an increasingly oppressive monarchy, and glaring socio-economic disparities within French society. France was an absolute monarchy under the rule of Louis XVI. The monarchy and aristocrats enjoyed considerable power and privilege, while the majority of the population struggled with poverty and inequities. The monarch's authority was rooted in an increasingly aging system, a system of governance that perpetuated social hierarchies and upheld feudal privileges, such as tax exemptions for the nobility and clergy.

The Enlightenment greatly influenced ideas that birthed the French Revolution. Enlightenment thinkers championed ideals of individual liberties, equality, and popular sovereignty. Their ideas, disseminated through France and Europe, fueled a growing demand for political and social change among the French citizens who found these ideas especially salient. Simultaneously, France faced severe economic challenges. Years of costly wars, including the American War Revolution, had depleted the royal treasury and burdened the nation with significant debt. To alleviate the financial strain, the monarchy resorted to implementing a harsh taxation policy that primarily affected the lower classes. This only added to the list of grievances that the French citizens had.

The clergy and nobility constituted the privileged classes, while the vast majority of the population, including the burgeoning middle class known as the bourgeoisie, endured oppressive conditions. The lower classes, peasants, and urban workers faced widespread poverty, food shortages, and unemployment. Tensions further escalated as a series of poor harvests and harsh winters plunged the country into widespread famine. The discontent was present all that the French Revolution needed was someone to take action.

Creation

Metadata

The periodical's content was created during the early years of the French Revolution (1789-91). As it is a collection of periodicals during a Revolution and efficient dissemination of the information was important, the volumized editions were printed as the issues were being released. There are page numbers throughout the book that increases within each of the volumes. That is each volume acts as it's own book in terms of format and page numbers. This is unlike a periodical, so it points to the idea that these volumes were distributed to perhaps wealthier readers or perhaps library or adjacent institutions to help inform more people that weren't living in Paris or who weren't in an area where the weekly issues were being distributed.

There were several publishers for different weeks. This wouldn't be unlikely as these periodicals were controversial and endangered Desmoulins’s life as well as others’. It must have been difficult to have a publisher willing to risk their lives or at least livelihoods to print this on a consistent week by week basis. These are the publishers listed at the end of the weekly publishings: Laillet & Garnéry; Chalon; Imprimerie du Cercle Social; Imprimerie Patriotique; Imprimerie des Révolutions de France et de Brabant.

Physical Object

An uncut page

The book was made from thin laid paper. Mass printing can be costly especially in the midst of a revolution. This aligns with this was a dangerous undertaking which meant that they needed to be as cost effective as possible as support for such materials were, while in demand, not acceptable by the government. This thin paper allowed them to spread information for less money and therefore let them continue to produce such books. Some weekly editions were made from different types of paper. Perhaps this is what specific printers had access to or maybe it's just what was available at the time.

Frontispiece and Political Cartoon of Issue no. 9 roughly translated the caption reads, "Portraits of the Impartials, the Moderates, the Moderators, otherwise known as the Aristocrats"

There are no paratexts aside from the frontispieces, but we also do not have the complete set, which includes the final edition of the series. The frontispieces weren’t used in the initial weekly editions, but soon became commonplace. They used relief printing to make them suggesting they valued durability and efficiency over extreme detail (which again aligns with the demands and risks of the job). It also was in everyone’s interest to provide as little incriminating evidence as possible, so the lack of more or varying paratexts is not surprising.

There were also many catch words to aid in printing which was interesting as it showed how many of the printers creating the books had trouble reading and also showed the complexity of such an endeavor. There were many misprinted words with letters in the right location but in the wrong orientation. The book was made using two folds or a quarto. Interestingly, an artifact of this format was that some of the University's copies contained uncut pages. Normally a reader would have cut these open finding them; however, they were common in some copies which suggests that these were not as commonly read before being collected by an institution or private collector wanting to preserve the work.

Usage and Significance

There was no trace of writings in the books aside from a serial number used for record keeping. This suggests the copies stood as something purely informational and not something that was used for any studying and some of the volumes were not even read thoroughly (at least by the owners of these copies) as shown by the uncut pages. However, this cannot be applied to all owners of copies of this work. Other owners may have taken more interest in the conflict and wanted to educate themselves. Perhaps this particular owner received the materials late and did not feel as compelled to read each and every issue let alone the entire collection.

Reflection

The collection's subtitle is “l'an premier de la liberté” and translates to "the first year of liberty". This minor but important inclusion helped to stir the French citizens. It sent a message that not only were they fighting for their rights and for a revolution underway but that it was all but won--this year would be the year looked back to as the first year of their freedom. This work helped to stir the patriotism and vigor of the French citizens that had been mistreated for centuries by the ruling class. It's author, someone who could spark the masses, ultimately was killed for sticking to his belief in the rights of his fellow citizens saying his last words: "It is marvelous that I have walked for five years along the precipices of the Revolution without falling over them, and that I am still living; and I rest my head calmly upon the pillow of my writings... I have dreamed of a Republic such as all the world would have adored. I could never have believed that men could be so ferocious and so unjust." The power of the written word, the book, not only helped M. Desmoulins but all of France.