Under the French

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

, royal

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

was the task of censors appointed by the chancellor to

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

the

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

legitimacy of a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

and to authorize its publication by an approval they signed. At the same time, a privilege in the form of letters patent granted in the King's Council, most often to the bookseller, guaranteed not the content, but the property of the publication against the counterfeiters. This renewable privilege was for three years, or even without limitation for certain basic works (Fathers of the Church, etc.). Brochures of up to 48 pages in-12 were the subject of a simple permission granted by the lieutenant general of police of the place.

Object of censorship

Gregoire-huret theatre-de-la-passion cum-privilegis

Censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

was provided by specialists in a number of areas, from the humanities to the sciences in general. They were appointed by the Chancellor. Their judgment related to the content of the proposed manuscript and not to the form. They could ask the author for some corrections.

History of prior censorship

Richelieu Richelieu (, ; ) may refer to: People * Cardinal Richelieu (Armand-Jean du Plessis, 1585–1642), Louis XIII's chief minister * Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu (1582–1653), French Carthusian bishop and Cardinal * Louis François Armand ...

was the first to appoint experts assigned to this task by the edict of 1629. After the

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...

, Colbert created a direction of the Bookstore, responsible for ensuring the granting of permissions and privileges now mandatory for all impressions made in France. In 1701, Abbe Bignon, in charge of the

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

business, promulgated a regulation of publishing in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

which, modified in 1723 for Paris and generalized in 1744, remained in force until the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Every manuscript must obtain the approval of a censor to obtain the editing privilege. Some manuscripts were however edited secretly under false address. This was the case of the Philosophical Letters of Voltaire or Émile, or De l'éducation de Rousseau. But most authors wishing to avoid censorship were publishing their books abroad:

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. The regulation stipulated that books could cross the border only by certain cities and after examination. But there was no provision to suppress smuggling.

Organization of censorship

The royal censors were appointed by the Chancellor, each in his specialty. The

Royal Almanac The Royal Almanac is a French administrative directory founded in 1683 by the bookseller Laurent d'Houry, which appeared under this title from 1700 to 1792, and under other titles until 1919. He presented each year in the official order of prece ...

published the list every year.

Main royal censors

Michel Adanson Michel Adanson (7 April 17273 August 1806) was an 18th-century French botanist and naturalist who traveled to Senegal to study flora and fauna. He proposed a "natural system" of taxonomy distinct from the binomial system forwarded by Linnaeus. ...

Nicolas Andry Nicolas Andry de Bois-Regard (1658 – 13 May 1742) was a French physician and writer. He played a significant role in the early history of both parasitology and orthopedics, the name for which is taken from Andry's book ''Orthopédie''. Early li ...

de Boisregard * Charles de Beaumont, knight of Éon * Pierre Jean Boudot *

Jean-Baptiste-Michel Bucquet Jean-Baptiste-Michel Bucquet (; 18 February 1746 – 24 January 1780) was a French chemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences, French Royal Academy of Sciences, physician and public teacher. Life and work Bucquet was born in Paris, in 1 ...

* *

Charles-Nicolas Cochin Charles-Nicolas Cochin (22 February 1715 – 29 April 1790) was a French engraver, designer, writer, and art critic. To distinguish him from his father of the same name, he is variously called Charles-Nicolas Cochin le Jeune (the Younger), Cha ...

the Younger * * Jean-Marie-Louis Coupé *

Louis Cousin Louis Cousin, le président Cousin (; 21 August 1627 – 26 February 1707) was a French translator, historian, lawyer, royal censor and president of the cour des monnaies. Cousin was born and died in Paris. He was the third member elected t ...

* Claude Delisle *

Jean-Nicolas Démeunier Jean-Nicolas Démeunier (sometimes Desmeuniers) (15 March 1751 – 2 February 1814) was a French author and politician. Biography Démeunier was born in Nozeroy in the department of Jura. He is the author of several historical essays, politica ...

Desfontaines-Lavallée François-Georges Fouques Deshayes (1733, Caen - 25 November 1825), known as Desfontaines or Desfontaines-Lavallée, was a French writer and playwright. Before the French Revolution he worked as a royal censor, secretary and librarian. He coopera ...

* Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle * Augustin François Jault * *

Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre Jean-Louis-Ignace de La Serre, sieur de Langlade, was an 18th-century French novelist and playwright born in Cahors in 1662 and died 30 September 1756. Royal censor, he authored a biography of Molière. He was wrongly attributed some works by Ma ...

Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (, 6 December 1721 – 22 April 1794), often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman and minister in the Ancien Régime, and later counsel for the defense of Lou ...

Jean-Étienne Montucla Jean-Étienne Montucla (5 September 1725 – 18 December 1799) was a French mathematician and historian. Montucla was born at Lyon, France. In 1754 he published an anonymous treatise on quadrature, ''Histoire des recherches sur la quadrature d ...

Jean-Baptiste Robinet Jean-Baptiste Robinet (; 23 June 1735 – 24 March 1820), also known as Jean-Baptiste-René Robinet, was a French naturalist, known for his five-volume work ''De la nature'' (1761-8). He was also involved in the sequel publications to the ''Enc ...

* Antoine Yart

Theatrical censorship

As early as 1701, the plays were in turn the subject of royal censorship: read before publication by the censors under the authority of the lieutenant general of police, the pieces were authorized either as such and received approval, or with cuts or corrections, when they were not simply prohibited. Voltaire paid the price for his Mohammed (1743), Sedaine for his Deserter (1769); The Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro de Beaumarchais escaped only thanks to the obstinacy of Marie Antoinette.

Theatrical censors

* 1701-1721: Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis of Argenson (1652-1721) * 1721-1726:? * 1726-1734: Father Claude Cherrier (1655-1738) * 1735-1762: Prosper Jolyot of Crebillon (1674-1762) * 1762-1774: François-Louis Claude Marin 1721-1809) * 1774-1776: Claude Prosper Jolyot of Crebillon (1707-1777) * 1776-1777: Louis-Edme Billardon of Sauvigny (1736-1812) * 1777-1790: Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard (1733-1817) * 1790-1792: Joly3Il s'agit peut-être d' Étienne Louis Hector de Joly. * 1804-1815: Jean-Louis Brousse-Desfaucherets, Pierre-Edouard Lemonty, Charles de Lacretelle and Joseph-Alphonse Esmenard * 1815-1822: Charles-Joseph Loeillard of Avrigny, Pierre-Edouard Lemontey, Charles de Lacretelle and Joseph-Alphonse Esmenard * 1822-1827: Jacques Honoré de Lourdoueix, Charles de Lacretelle, René Alissan of Chazet, Jean-Louis Laya and Antoine Quatremère of Quincy * 1827-1830:?

References

Sources

* Claude-Marin Saugrain, Code of the bookstore and printing of Paris, Paris, at the expense of the Community, 1744. * Raymond Birn, The Royal Censorship of Books in Enlightenment France, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2007 (). * William Hanley, A biographical dictionary of English censors 1742-1789, Ferney, International Center for the Study of the Eighteenth Century, 2005 ({{ISBN, 978-2-84559031-1) * Biography of the royal censors, Paris, at the merchants of novelties, 1821. * Victor Hallays-Dabot, History of theatrical censorship in France, Paris, E. Dentu, 1862. History of books Censorship in France