Archives Nationales Research Articles

RiC-O Converter: A Software to Convert EAC-CPF and EAD 2002 XML Files to RDF Datasets Conforming to Records in Contexts Ontology

RiC-O Converter is an open source command-line tool to convert EAD finding aids and EAC-CPF authority records to RDF files conforming to ICA Records in Contexts ontology (RiC-O) in a robust manner. It was developed for the Archives nationales of France but is aimed to be reused by other archival institutions, and to this aim is fully documented in English. It is based on XSLT stylesheets that consider the variability of EAD content. It enabled the Archives nationales of France to convert 15,400 EAC-CPF files and 31,000 EAD files into a homogeneous knowledge graph, and to start a more specific project aiming to provide end users with an intuitive search interface for a significant subset of this graph, opening new perspectives for navigating and linking from/to archival metadata.

When a Catholic is invested as the Orthodox patriarch of Antioch: Serafeim/Kyrillos Tanas and the Ottoman central administration

While a lot has been written on the earlier phases of the Antiochian Schism of 1724, the rivalry between Serafeim/Kyrillos Tanas and Silvestros in the 1740s is mostly noted in passing. This article introduces the unpublished and often-ignored Ottoman documents relating to Kyrillos’ brief tenure, most notably his berat of investiture preserved in the Ottoman Archives. The article has three major purposes: First, it establishes a solid chronological context, which adds a more global nature to this episode. Second, by contextualizing the episode with special focus on the Ottoman dynamics, it searches for the major reasons for Kyrillos’ appointment by the Ottoman administration through a discussion of his discourse presenting himself as a reliable partner with the Porte. Third, it analyzes Kyrillos’ unpublished berat in comparison with the earlier and later berats and a contemporary French translation preserved in the Archives nationales in Paris.

Thomas Carlyle, François Guizot and the Brothers Ruffini: An unpublished letter

This article presents a letter from the great Victorian man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) to François Guizot (1787–1874), the de facto premier of France, recently discovered in the Archives Nationales in Paris. In the letter, Carlyle requests Guizot’s help in procuring visas for two of his friends, the exiled Italian revolutionaries Giovanni and Agostino Ruffini, who were hoping to visit their mother in France. The letter serves as an entry point into a wider consideration of the relationships between Carlyle, Guizot and the brothers Ruffini, all of which have been overlooked in the existing scholarship on Carlyle. In particular, the article provides an English translation of Giovanni and Agostino’s significant accounts of their relations with Carlyle (and his wife Jane), originally written in Italian.

The politics of Catholic humanitarian aid: missionaries and American relief in Algeria (1942–47)

Abstract This article examines the politics of the Catholic American aid delivered in French-controlled Algeria between 1942 and 1947. Using the archives of the White Fathers (Missionnaires d’Afrique), the Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer and the archives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Catholic University of America in Washington this article traces how humanitarian relief funds sent in support of missionaries in Algeria altered their status in the colonial order. The article focuses on the transformative aspects of this American intervention in a complex colonial environment. It argues that the American Catholic intervention, with its focus on indigenous patients rather than colonial settlers, renewed older and broader provisions of missionary relief in Algeria. American aid funded missionary work and resourced social work and later aligned Catholic relief with anti-communist activities in France.

Les comptes de l’hôtel de Marie, duchesse d’Anjou (1365-1366)

Cette édition critique du compte de l’hôtel de Marie de Bretagne (Archives nationales, KK 241) rend hommage non seulement à l’expertise de Michael Jones en tant qu’éditeur prolifique de documents d’archives relatifs à la famille ducale bretonne, mais aussi à ses recherches fondamentales sur le duché à la fin du Moyen Âge, sur les modes de vie aristocratique et sur les pratiques documentaires administratives. Le compte de Marie, qui s’étend du 13 juillet 1365 au 7 mars 1366, tombe à point nommé pour donner un aperçu des conséquences de la défaite de ses parents, Charles de Blois et Jeanne de Penthièvre, duc et duchesse de Bretagne, dans la Guerre de succession. Par exemple, Marie a accueilli son frère cadet pendant que leur mère s’occupait d’affaires ailleurs, et a commandé une messe pour l’âme de son père. Plus généralement, ce compte donne des informations détaillées sur les aspects matériels, organisationnels et logistiques du ménage d’une princesse. Il est divisé en quatre sections : argent reçu, dépenses quotidiennes, dépenses extraordinaires et provisions en nature. Ces éléments nous permettent de reconstituer l’itinéraire habituel de Marie en Anjou et sur un long voyage en Languedoc (dont son mari était le lieutenant royal), les relations au sein et en dehors de son entourage, et la consommation de luxe en ce qui concerne la nourriture, les vêtements, le mécénat. Un dernier aspect de l’intérêt de ce compte réside dans sa composition particulière : les registres originaux ayant été détruits lors du siège de Vaas en 1370, le comptable ducal a établi ce remplacement en 1376 en notant soigneusement d’où il tirait ses informations. Nous pouvons donc voir comment un administrateur a utilisé des documents provenant de différentes parties de l’hôtel pour reconstituer l’un des innombrables documents perdus dans la violence de la guerre de Cent Ans.

The Rise of Vietnamese Nuns: Views from the Buddhist Revival Movement (1931–1945)

In this article, with the aim of better understanding the development of Vietnamese Buddhist nuns, the period of the Buddhist revival movement is investigated. This event is considered a turning point for Vietnamese Buddhism. In addition, it will help to shed light on the status of Vietnamese nuns. In this article—which is mainly based on archival documents kept in the National Overseas Archives (the French colonial archives held at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer) and the National Archives Center I, Buddhism periodicals, and memoirs—the status of Vietnamese women during the French colonial period is clarified, as well as the positive effects of the colonial regime in regard to the change in women’s perceptions. Then, the differences in the nuns’ situation in three regions are analyzed. Finally, an exploration is conducted into the rise of nuns during the revival movement and the emergence of reformist nuns. Indeed, it is reformist nuns that have shaped the image of modern Vietnamese nuns. Moreover, they also created a direction by which the following generations could continue along, as well as playing an important role in the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.

Rodolphe (1845–1905) and Maurice Kann (1839–1906)

Abstract This study of two important German–Jewish collectors who settled in Paris, after 1866, Maurice (1839–1906) and Rodolphe (1845–1905) Kann, examines their place in French society. Based on unpublished archives, in particular the discovery of their wills (Archives Nationales, Paris) and their correspondence with Wilhelm von Bode (Berlin), it helps us to understand the evolution of the brothers’ collections and their practice of donation. Paradoxically, these two collectors escape any classification. Are they collectors? Are they patrons? They appear on the fringes of the group of collector figures of the late 1800s, and their activities show that the frontier between personal pleasure and speculation is porous. The article also raises the question of the role of dealers in the construction of a business focused on collection at the fin-de-siècle.

Helynevek és hatalom

The paper analyses the spatial aspects and the writing down of the publication ritual of royal and local ordinances in late medieval Paris, based on the study of the register books of the royal provost in the Châtelet (Archives nationales de France, Y2-Y6), the Livres de couleur. The majority of the publications are described as made « at the accustomed places », and only a small part (cc.50) of the registered publication rituals are documented with a list of place names. Their microscopic study helps to understand the detailed workings of medieval power rituals. The analysis of the lists shows that the ritual of the publication was far from invariable and fixed by customs. On the contrary, different ordinances were published at different urban locations, and the publication ritual was performed on a great variety of itineraries. Besides the variability of the ritual itself, the writing down of the publication has its own strategies. The listing of place names fits perfectly into the pool of mostly verbal methods of medieval representation of geographic space and has its rhetoric value too. However, listing constitutes only a minority of the documented cases, the allusion to the customary progress of the ritual (performed at the « accustomed places ») appears much more frequently. This method creates the image of the invariable, customary, aka ideal ritual, ensuring the coming into force of the published ordinances. Thus, the practices of proclamation and their written documentation are both used to guarantee the effectiveness of the ritual and the everyday presence of royal power in the city.

Thomas Paine’s reflections on the revolution in France: inventing a reactionary Paine in 1825

Abstract This article looks into an unpublished manuscript in French found in Jacques-Pierre Brissot’s papers in the Archives Nationales. The manuscript’s author and/or translator presents it as a diary written by Thomas Paine during his time as a deputy in the National Convention. Yet both the manuscript’s form and its content suggest that it may well be a forgery. The context in which it was written is crucial. In the 1820s, memoirs and histories looked back upon the French Revolution as the political contest among ultras, liberals and republicans and revived some of the issues raised during the French revolutionary decade. The author of this manuscript was openly pro-Bourbon and seemed to turn Paine into a moderate partisan of monarchy. Many clues show that the views expressed on the events of the Revolution do not match Paine’s writings or are contradicted by records in French archives.

ЕРНЕСТ ДЕНИ И СРБИ : О „НАЈВЕЋЕМ ПРИЈАТЕЉУ СЛОВЕНАˮ ПОВОДОМ СТОГОДИШЊИЦЕ СМРТИ ERNEST DENIS AND SERBS: ABOUT “THE GREATEST FRIEND OF THE SLAVSˮ ON THE OCCASION OF THE CENTENARY OF DEATH

The work of Ernest Denis (1849–1921), a historian, professor and diplomat, is embedded in the idea of the “eternal friendship” between the French and the Serbs. However, one hundred years after his death, the man, in whose house in the Latin Quarter there is L’Institut d’études slaves within Sorbonne University, is unknown to the broader public. In the interwar period, Denis, who from 1912 was also a member of the Serbian Royal Academy, was respected as the “advocate of the subjugated people” and “the greatest friend of the Slavs”. However, after 1945, his work sank into oblivion, except for historians and history buffs. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the work of this French intellectual, based on archival records (Les Archives nationales de France – Site de Paris), the press, his works and memories of his contemporaries. The revaluation of the personality and work of Ernest Denis on the occasion of centenary of his death, is a chance to piece together the mosaic of remembrance and highlight the activities of the present-day L’Institut d’études slaves at Sorbonne.

La culture vidéoludique au Québec

Comment parle-t-on des jeux vidéo au fil du temps dans la Belle Province? Peut-on parler d’une culture vidéoludique spécifiquement québécoise? Voilà les deux questions auxquelles nous tentons de répondre dans cet article. Prenant notre départ dans le catalogue général de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), nous recensons les documents sur le jeu vidéo, nous attachant aux publications ou discours produits par des Québécois à l’intention d’un public québécois entre 1978 et 2018. Au fil de l’argumentation, nous signalons certaines limites du catalogue de BAnQ, discutons de l’accessibilité à la culture du jeu vidéo au Québec et des problèmes que pose sa préservation, et analysons quelques-uns des documents trouvés par le moteur de recherche de BAnQ.

Whatever the cost: Grain trade and the Genoese dominating minority in Sicily and Tabarka (16th-18th centuries)

This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western Mediterranean markets. Our goal is to shed light on their ability to integrate into foreign lands, taking advantage of their privileged position within the Spanish Crown. Our analysis is focussed on two case studies, strictly connected from a theoretical point of view: Sicily and Tabarka. Both Genoese minorities living on these two islands used the port of Genoa as their commercial hub. Regarding Sicily, this study has mostly drawn information from a yet unexploited source: general average procedures drawn up in Genoa. General average (GA) was (and still is nowadays) a legal instrument used in maritime trade to share between all parties involved the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of their loading aboard until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, etc.). These documents have been collected in an online database soon to be published as part of the ERC-funded AveTransRisk project. They offer valuable insights on shipmasters and merchants, cargo values, ports of destination, wheat prices, etc. All the sources are available on the online database resulting from the AveTransRisk project, of which we are members (http://humanities-research.exeter.ac.uk/avetransrisk). For the trade in North African wheat, we have mostly used documents related to the Genoese ‘colony’ of Tabarka, administered by the Lomellini family. These sources are kept in the Genoese archives as well as in the Archives Nationales of Paris.

Spanish revolutionary exile in France (1934-1936)

ABSTRACT The exodus provoked by the Civil War (1936–1939) is, due to its magnitude, the principal field of study on Spanish exile. Nevertheless, during the Spanish Republic in peacetime (1931–1936), different exiles took place which have not raised as much interest within the historiography. This is the case of those that had to flee Spain after being involved in the October Revolution of 1934. They were anonymous activists, the middle ranks, and also well-known leaders of the working-class movement, many of whom would play an important role during the time of the Popular Front, the Civil War and exile. In order to carry out this study, the archives of the five French départements bordering Spain, the Archives Nationales and the Archives de la Préfecture de Police in Paris were consulted. That facilitated identifying two hundred and seventy-five refugees, as well as understanding important aspects of their route towards exile, how they crossed the border, what their the journey was and the vicissitudes they experienced in French territory and what the conduct of the French authorities was.

Colors in the French National Archives

AbstractThe presentation of the F/12 collection of textiles, kept at the Archives nationales, provides an opportunity to make known a unique color collection. The Archives nationales preserves the memory of the French central administration in the 18th century through the history of the action taken by the State concerning the color of textiles through the control of their production, and the encouragement of innovation. The textile samples belong to different provinces of the kingdom, and illustrate dyeing trials and dyeing experiments from over two centuries.

Sprawa Marty Puretz, domniemanej agentki Gestapo z krakowskiego getta

Martę Puretz literatura naukowa obsadza w charakterze konfidentki Gestapo. Tymczasem przeczy temu konsultacja obfitej dokumentacji źródłowej z Archives Nationales w Paryżu. Nieprzypadkowo zatem używam określenia „domniemana agentka”. Artykuł stanowi udokumentowane odtworzenie losów Marty Puretz w Polsce, na Węgrzech i we Francji, także tych powojennych, bo tylko takie ujęcie pozwoli zrewidować utarte sądy. Przybliżam środowisko krakowskiej zasymilowanej inteligencji żydowskiej, które Puretz ukształtowało, jej pobyt w getcie i walkę o przetrwanie, ucieczkę z obozu w Płaszowie i szczęście posiadania po aryjskiej stronie dwóch oddanych kobiet – niani i byłej służącej – na które zawsze mogła liczyć. Przed ucieczką na Węgry na kilka miesięcy znalazła oparcie w gronie polskich znajomych, którzy ją przechowywali. Węgry nie były dla niej wybawieniem, stały się raczej potrzaskiem. Nieszczęsnym epizodem była jej czasowa zależność od polskiego Żyda, niejakiego Fabera, który później dwukrotnie oskarżał ją o współpracę z Gestapo. Na Węgrzech związała się z Charles Herozem, pracownikiem attaszatu francuskiego w Budapeszcie. Ukrywając się u niego, pomagała mu w podziemnej działalności antyniemieckiej. Pobrali się w 1945 r., po zdobyciu Budapesztu przez Armię Czerwoną. Oskarżona przez Fabera o współpracę z Niemcami, była sądzona przez węgierski Trybunał Ludowy, który z braku dowodów ją uniewinnił. Po wyjeździe Marty Puretz do Francji strona polska wpisała ją na listę zbrodniarzy wojennych, do czego walnie przyczyniły się oskarżenia Fabera, i przez kilka lat domagała się bezskutecznie jej ekstradycji

Pratiques de l’écrit, pratiques de la carte : Rendre justice aux cartes médiévales et modernes (note critique)

Pratiques de l’écrit, pratiques de la carte: Rendre justice aux cartes médiévales et modernes (note critique)La sortie du catalogue de l’exposition qui a eu lieu en 2019 aux Archives nationales, Quand les artistes dessinaient les cartes. Vues et figures de l’espace français, Moyen Âge et Renaissance, sous la direction de Juliette Dumasy-Rabineau, Nadine Gastaldi et Camille Serchuk, est l’occasion de revenir sur une production cartographique importante à partir de la fin du Moyen Âge, celle des cartes à grande échelle, envisagées ici pour l’espace français. Si le catalogue met l’accent sur la dimension artistique de ces cartes, le corpus choisi permet surtout de montrer que celles-ci s’inscrivaient dans des contextes documentaires plus vastes. L’ouvrage rend également compte de la diversité de leurs usages et de leur rôle récurrent dans le cadre du règlement de conflits devant la justice. Il donne un certain nombre d’éclairages, qui mériteraient d’être approfondis, concernant les commanditaires de ce type de cartes et invite, pour finir, à réfléchir sur quelques idées reçues quant aux représentations cartographiques de l’espace dans les sociétés médiévales et modernes, mais aussi dans les sociétés occidentales contemporaines.

Le graveur Jacques Renaud Benard (1731-1794) : un collaborateur majeur de l’Encyclopédie enfin identifié

Malgre l’impressionnante contribution du graveur parisien Benard a l’Encyclopedie, dont il a signe 60 % des planches, et malgre sa participation a d’autres monuments de l’edition comme les voyages de Cook, ou l’Encyclopedie methodique, dirigeant alors une equipe de 60 personnes, on ne savait absolument rien jusqu’a maintenant de la vie du personnage. Grâce a des recherches menees dans les fonds des Archives nationales, dans les registres paroissiaux des archives de la Seine-Saint-Denis, ainsi que dans les proces-verbaux manuscrits du Bureau des longitudes, de nombreuses donnees biographiques le concernant ont pu etre rassemblees, et ce manufacturier majeur de l’Encyclopedie est desormais identifie avec certitude : il s’agit de Jacques Renaud Benard, ne a Rosny-sous-Bois en 1731 et decede a Paris en 1794.

Fundar para defender: fortificación y geoestrategia en Saint-Domingue entre 1665 y 1748

La colonia de Saint-Domingue se constituyó poco después de su ocupación como la principal posesión francesa en las Antillas bajo la que la Corona se organizó comercial y militarmente en el Caribe. A pesar de ello, hasta no hace mucho, las cuestiones relativas a su defensa han pasado desapercibidas por la historiografía. Este trabajo pretende documentar el proceso de fortificación de la colonia entre 1665 y 1748, a partir del estudio de un importante corpus cartográfico conservado, en su mayoría, en los Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer de Aix-en-Provence. En base a ello, se aspira a definir el plan defensivo implementado por la administración francesa en relación con los factores geoestratégicos que encuadraron este periodo y, más especialmente, la guerra que enfrentó al bloque hispanofrancés con el británico durante la década de 1740.

Génétique textuelle, censure et sous-texte sexuel dans L’Affaire de la rue de Lourcine

Abstract The aim of this article is to examine the sexual subtext underlying L’Affaire de la rue de Lourcine, a farce by Eugene Labiche, Édouard Martin, and Albert Monnier, through a detailed comparative study of the four different manuscripts that preceded the first printed version of the play, and which are held at the Archives nationales, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and in the archives of the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. The first two original manuscripts were written by Labiche’s collaborators; the third was submitted to the Bureau de la censure to authorize its production; and the fourth constitutes the text used for the staging of the play in the Palais-Royal in 1857. A comparative analysis of the play’s textual genetics will reveal a series of hidden allusions to sexual aggression, prostitution, and homoerotic relations between characters — challenging critics’ traditional dismissal of the play as innocuous and inoffensive.

Street names in Dakar-Plateau: a colonial and post-colonial perspective

ABSTRACT This article revolves around the naming of streets in Dakar-Plateau. This was borne in mind as analysis considered the system of urban nomenclature applied in the colonial era, when the city was founded and shaped by France’s colonial administration; as well as the (re)naming process ongoing after Senegal’s independence. The approach thus applied quantitative verification methods to a thesis oft-repeated in the subject literature, that a French glossary of toponyms dominates the system by which streets in Dakar are named. Quantitative analysis here shows unequivocally that there is only a slight numerical prevalence of colonial-era names of streets over new names. Beyond that, clear evidence is offered for the idea that, in both colonial days and today, the symbolic urban landscape expressed with the aid of urbanonyms was shaped by authorities in a conscious manner, being pressed into the service of political objectives. To indicate the strength of this kind of linkage, the article engages in the detailed discussion of each change of name that certain streets have been through; the bases for this approach being reference to the historical town/city plans present in the Archives Nationales du Sénégal, as well as fieldwork carried out in the Senegalese capital.