Authentic 8th century letter of Charlemagne, letter of Napoléon, archives of Trotsky – A fun visit to the French National Museum of Archives! (Excuse the bad quality of pics, OC, detailed description in the comments; chronological order)
by FomalhautCalliclea
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Description of respective photos (I tried to keep it short, sorry for the bad quality of the pics, too much reflection and people around, and there was so much more to photograph, couldn’t put it all in there) :
1) 716, march, Merovingian letter of king Chilpéric II (672-721). Made in Compiègne city.
Giving the privilege of a yearly rent of 100 franks (currency of the time) on the income of the tax services in Marseille city and an exoneration of toll, That privilege was granted by king Dagobert the 1st (602/5-638/9) to the abbey of Saint-Denis. Interesting fact, this type of writing was introduced by Irish monks in monasteries. There were many Irish men coming to « the continent » in the early Middle Ages, such as the famous philosopher John Scotus Eriugena (c. 800-877). Ireland was then known as « the island of wise men and saints ».
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Scotus_Eriugena
2) 797, 12 of april, letter of Charlemagne (742/8-814). Made in Aachen.
Diploma innocenting a count named Theudoaldus of an accusation of lèse-majesté. This document displays a new type of writing associated with the carolingian renaissance (this form will last until the XI th century. This renaissance was also inspired by the circle of intellectuals Charlemagne gathered around him, among which English scholar Alcuin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin
3) 1226, march, gift by Philippe Hurepel (1200-1234), count of Boulogne and Clermont, to the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem of 48 acres of land to clear near Saint-Souplet (Paris region). Pont-de-l’Arche, Normandy. Gothic style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
4) 1562, 25 of september, letter of Gaspard de Coligny (1519-1572) to the besieged protestants of the city of Rouen.
Gaspard de Coligny was an important figure of the wars of religions in France (1562-1598), murdered during the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre. The letter is written on a piece of cloth sewn to the top clothing of the messenger to be passed in stealth, hence the ripped missing part on the bottom right. This letter contains military instructions. This one was very likely intercepted by the catholic forces when the city fell, explaining why we currently possess only 4 copies of such letters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre
5) 1538, june 6th, letter of Lazare de Baïf, royal commissioner in Provence region, aslong to chanceler Du Bourg his payment for his mission.
6) 1574 Parisian Notary François Croiset register.
7) 1665 Memorandum by minister Colbert (1619-1683) to Louis XIV about how the palace of Versailles was « a monster in buildings », criticizing how expensive and big the project was and arguing against its construction.The man is also famous to have been a strong proponent of the mercantilist and interventionist school of thoughts in economy, playing a big rôle in France’s development. Oh and he wrote the horrendous « Code Noir », a book of law ruling slaves and deporting jewish people out of the colonies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Noir
8) 1662, january 23th, notarial act of wedding between Molière (1622-1673) and Armande Béjart, and a XVIIth century writing feather.
Molière is perhaps the most famous poet of the french langage (french is sometimes called « the language of Molière », he’s some sort of french Shakespeare). The act says the mother of the spouse gave 10 000 « livres tournois » (currency of the time) as dowry, meaning the fellow was terribly rich.
9) 1740, november the 1st, piece of paper found on an abandonned baby girl found in Paris (street of Bernardins), stitched in her nappies.
The yellow piece of cloth was made for the parents to eventually recover the child if their material situation improved (since abandonned children were usually from poor families). Such abandons were common in Paris back then. There is a whole register of such documents… The paper was likely written in a hurry and gives instructions to take good care of the kid. Apparently, many parents hoped to recover the kid later, and the papers often depicted the abandonment as a temporary solution.
Location :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_des_Bernardins
10) 1762, july the 2nd, letter by Voltaire, defending the innocence of the Calas family.
In 1762, a protestant man named Jean Calas was publicly executed in a very violent way. He tried to hide the suicide of one of his sons (a taboo thing back then) and was accused of killing him to prevent him from converting to catholicism. He was tortured and questionned, then beaten, strangled and burned. One of his sons contacted Voltaire and convinced him to defend him. Voltaire will eventually succeed in innocenting Calas in 1765.
11) 1764, Threat letter by a man named Dubois to a man named Hugault. Among others he tells him « Farewell my god damn pimp ! », repeating « farewell » as in to wish for his death, throwing curses and slurs at him (mocking the clergy in caricatures too).