Edmond Jean François Barbier, Chronique de la Régence et du règne de Louis XV, ii: 1727–1734. Édition de Pierre Bonnet, Henri Duranton, Fadi El Hage et Denis Reynaud

Abstract

This second instalment of Edmond Barbier’s chronicle of Louis XV’s reign is excellent. Like the first volume (see FS, 75 (2021), 392), it is a significant augmentation of the anonymous edition of the Chroniques published in 1857. The academics who have produced this tome are to be complimented for their meticulous overhaul of the text. These pages are bountifully footnoted, with prodigious erudition. Of particular interest is the appendix, containing over 100 pages of parlementaire edicts, episcopal pastoral letters, satirical songs, and spoofs — testament to the budding public sphere of early eighteenth-century Paris. Satires collected from the Régiment de la Calotte are noteworthy. These pranksters and satirists were brilliant, and cutting, in lampooning the great affairs of the day. The Chroniques cherish their writings, and it does feel like the author has gathered his favourite clippings from Private Eye. Barbier was a voracious consumer of current affairs and gossip. Still, it is unclear why he decided to compile this odd mix of high politics, religious controversies, curios, and military affairs. The editors, perhaps uncharitably, state Barbier had few genuine interests outside of the world of the Parlements and Versailles (p. 12). This may be true, but we can hardly blame him for not being Voltaire. In the end, he was a legal expert who wrote about what he knew best: the insular world of the lawyers who inhabited the Île de la Cité. Despite this limitation, he is an insightful, often witty (less often stylish), recorder of the concerns and scandals that rocked the Parlement during the 1730s. The years, recorded in these pages, saw the controversies surrounding Jansenism. Although this heresy was condemned by the Apostolic Constitution Unigenitus in 1713, Paris’s population and its Parlement remained committed to its austere spirituality. Barbier, genuinely appalled at events, discusses in detail the Council of Embrun which condemned Bishop Jean Soanen, the Crown’s despotic attempts to enforce acceptance of Unigenitus, and finally the billets de confession crisis (when suspected Jansenists were refused the sacraments). He was bewildered by the emergence of a cult in the cemetery of Saint-Médard. Here, the remains of a Jansenist holy man, François de Pâris, became the object of mass veneration. Many experienced not only miracles but also ecstatic convulsions. Unwisely, the royal authorities rounded up Jansenists and exiled their parlementaire supporters. The Crown’s heavy-handed attempts to stamp out Jansenism fanned the flames of discontent. An obscure religious controversy was thus transformed into open opposition against French absolutism. Volume ii ends with the forgotten War of the Polish Succession (1733–35). Barbier received anonymous letters from officers on the Italian front, and was fascinated by the performance of France’s armies. Yet, this volume is not all politics and war, and there are light-hearted moments too. A favourite must be the card-playing dog who entertained the crowds of the Paris markets. The secret behind this canine’s abilities baffled Barbier. This new edition of the Chroniques goes from strength to strength; its editors are to be praised for their passion and erudition.