Projet de cirque national et de fêtes annueles. Propose par le Sieur Poyet, Architecte de la Ville de Paris. Bernard M. Poyet. A Paris: De l'Imprimerie de Migneret, Rue Jacob, F.S.G. no 40, 1792.

In 1923, Bancroft acquired the collection of Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, a nineteenth-century French politician famous for his advocacy of universal manhood suffrage. Fueled by subsequent acquisitions, French Revolutionary materials currently number in excess of 10,000 documents and date from 1789-1799. Historical resources range from posters to official government proclamations to a manuscript diary kept by an anonymous Parisian royalist, who each day recorded the weather, his social activities and on occasion, news of who was guillotined that day.

At the heart of the collection are thousands of serene and simple looking pamphlets. Although many of these documents are catalogued and readily available to students and scholars, a number of pamphlets remain untouched. However, since 1996 student assistants—including myself—have had the opportunity to examine, study, and catalog these rare items, many of which are not found in leading French libraries. Once this work is complete, Bancroft’s collection will be an invaluable tool for researchers around the world. Anyone with Internet access will be able to search and locate previously unknown pamphlets by title, author, or subject heading and trace the work of specific printers and publishers.

L'Épidémie française: satyre. [S.L.]: De l'Imprimerie de la Lune, Dans le Palais ou Astolfe aetrouve la raison de Rolland, 1790.

I began work on the pamphlet collection in the summer of 2002. I thought this project would be a good way to get my hands on some rare material from eighteenth century France and help me learn a little more about the French Revolution itself. As I quickly discovered, there was more I needed to learn about the Revolution. I knew something about the fall of the Bastille and the execution of the king, but I soon realized that this paltry knowledge would not suffice. So, off I was scurrying around the library to figure out just what some of the pamphlets were really about, and in the process I learned a great deal about obscure generals and politicians, uprisings in out-of-the-way towns, and the intricacies of property law during the Revolution.

Détail de l'horrible conspiration formée, par Robespierre, Couthon & St.-Just: les 8, 9 et 10 Thermidor. Paris: De l'Imprimerie de Guilhemat, Imprimeur de la Liberte, 1794.

To be honest, some of the pamphlets I come across are, well, not terribly interesting to me. I have encountered a number of items relating to tax law as well as numerous declarations of the patriotism of this or that town. However, I have also found some real gems such as the long discussion of why a national circus, as mentioned above, was so necessary. Some of the pamphlets bring out the more grizzly side of the French Revolution. I find it impossible to forget one celebrating the death of Robespierre and his collaborators. Appearing above the title is a woodcut with the image of a guillotine, in front of which the executioner gleefully holds up the head of one of the executed men. Another pamphlet describes the death of a royalist general. It can be refreshing to see that in the midst of war and upheaval, the French maintained a keen sense of humor. A satirical pamphlet claims to be printed on the moon, and there are pamphlets that make fun the king, the clergy, and famous politicians. A personal favorite is one that pretends to record the proceedings of a group of aristocratic women who demand a national academy of fashion. It is collection that includes everything from the banal to the gruesome to the ridiculous and as such it is a wonderful indicator of the incredible riches and complexity of the age.