Nature and Art, July 1, 18GG.] 
ANCIENT RECORDS OF FRANCE. 
4 
respecting' tlie origin, the works, and the success of painters 
and sculptors employed in connection with public fetes and 
solemnities, amongst whom are conspicuous, Pierre Evrard 
(1455), Pereal (1511), Sebastien of Bologna, the famous 
architect Philibert de Lorme, and a great number of cele- 
brated engravers, die-sinkers, bookbinders, and other artists 
and art-workmen. 
The Administration of Public Assistance, the charity 
board of Paris, has just completed the first volume of the 
analysis of the documents relating to the famous hospital of 
the Hotel Dieu, just now about to be superseded by a new 
building after centuries of service in the cause of suffering 
humanity. This volume contains a vast amount of topo- 
graphical information respecting- old Paris, of which so little 
remains at the present moment, and which in a few years 
will be almost as difficult to trace as the remains of the 
works of Augustus and Julian which lie beneath them. 
Many documents supposed to have been destroyed have 
been brought to light ; and it is stated, in the Minister’s 
report, that a large number of questions relative to state, 
communal, and individual rights, which have been under [ 
dispute for years, can now be settled : these papers have j 
been found principally amongst the cartularies, the cadastres j 
or valuation of lands, court rolls, road maps, and concessions ! 
of common and waste lands. Much curious and valuable 
information has been obtained respecting the works and 
plans for the defences of the ports and coasts of Rouen, 
Havre, Dieppe, Saint- Valery-en-Caux ; for the prevention ' 
of the inundations in Loraine, the embankment of the Rhine, 
and the formation of canals ; projects connected with mines, 
quarries, haras, or horse-breeding establishments, nursery 
grounds, bridges, and roads ; the extinction of pauperism, 
and many other subjects connected with social economy. 
The old acts relative to the foundation of hospitals, the 
creation of the national manufactures of porcelain, tapestry, 
and tobacco, and the organization of public works, are full 
of interest at the present moment, when such marvellous 
transformations are being made, especially in the capitals of 
France and England. 
The most valuable documents of all are perhaps those 
which help to explain the extraordinary state of society 
which existed previous to the Revolution, such as the records 
of the old parliaments, of the States-General, of the assem- 
blies of nobles, of provincial assemblies, and other institu- 
tions of that interesting, time ; and those which illustrate 
the peculiar habits and customs of the various provinces, 
their connections, quarrels, conflicts, and disputes. It is 
difficult to imagine any quarry more attractive than this to 
the student of European history and of civilization. 
All old documents of the kind furnish much personal 
matter of interest ; memorials of men famous in history, in 
art, or in story, traces of their hand in the movements of 
the time, and indications of their individual peculiarities ; 
and the French archives abound in such memorabilia. We 
see Claude Saumise, the savant of the seventeenth century, 
occupied with the deciphering of ancient manuscripts, and 
at the same time vigorously defending his own claim to 
nobility ; and the echevins, or aldermen, of Lyons, after the 
troubles of the League, are exhibited expending far more 
time in searching for the letters-patent which ennobled them 
than in defending the city against the gipsies, necromancers, 
and vagabonds of all descriptions who threatened to con- 
sume the funds intended for the support of the old and 
infirm. The records of the local tribunals afford strange 
glimpses of ancient jurisprudence. In Burgundy, for in- 
stance, the fine inflicted for aiding- in the escape of the am- 
bassadors of the Count of Savoy and the Marquis of Mont- 
ferrat, in the year 1385, was only ten francs; but the 
proceedings gave rise to writings “ fifty feet long,” and these 
were taxed at a little more than a farthing per foot. In 
Rouen, in the thirteenth century, slander committed by a 
woman was punished by three immersions in the Seine ; and 
the murder of a woman of bad repute was expiated by a fine 
of five francs. In the Orleanais, false witnesses were 
punished by having their tongues pierced with a hot iron, 
and being- afterwards flogged with rods, by the hangman, 
through the streets of the town. The early phases of 
university life are curiously illustrated by documents relating- 
to the famous schools of Avignon, Caen, Poitiers, Toulouse, 
and other places. Many documents full of interest illustrate 
the progress of the fine arts and their applications to indus- 
try, such as sculpture in stone and wood, painting on glass 
and enamel, tapestry, and other work. Amongst those 
appertaining to architecture are the deeds and papers rela- 
ting to the famous church of Bron, regarded as one of the 
chefs d’ceuvres of the sixteenth century, the Sainte-Chapclle 
of Dijon, the Palace of the Dauphins ; the Chateau Gaillard, 
j famous in the history of the English possession of Nor- 
mandy, with its paintings by the Italian masters ; and the 
royal palaces of Fontainebleau, Vincennes, Blois, Ambrose, 
and other places. The history of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, and that of the abominable institution of 
Lettres de Cachet, may now be studied in a large number of 
important documents. 
Interesting references to celebrated persons are of course 
sprinkled throughout the whole of the archives. We find 
that the great naturalist, Cuvier, in his youth, filled the 
modest office of registrar in the small commune of Bec-en- 
Cauchois; and the minutes of the meetings of the authorities, 
in his handwriting, are still in existence. Pierre Corneille — - 
the Grand Corneille — kept the register of the building of a 
church at Rouen, of which he was marrguillier, or church- 
warden, and his observations on the conduct of his 
colleagues are noted with great freedom. A little place 
called Avon — not in Warwickshire, but in the department 
of the Seine and Marne — seems to have been a perfect 
hotbed of genius, though now it is scarcely known. In its 
parish books are the records of the birth and many other 
circumstances relating to a crowd of eminent men — the 
artists, Leonard de Flamand, Francois de Bologna, 
Sebastian Serlio, Rosso, Antoine .Tacquet de Grenoble ; 
the Primatrice 1 Nicolo Dell’ Abbate, Jean de Hoey, 
Freminet, Ambroise Dubois ; the mathematician Bezout, 
and the naturalist Daubenton. 
The whole expenses of analyzing and publishing these valu- 
able records of aby-gone time, have been borne by the Conseils 
Gtneraux of the various departments ; but the work could 
scarcely have been done at all, and certainly not within any 
reasonable period, but for the existence in France of an 
institution, which has no counterpart in our own country, 
namely, the Ecole Invperiale des Charles, connected with 
the bureau of the Imperial Archives in Paris. This school, 
which confers the degree of Archivists. Paldog raphe, supplies 
keepers and assistant-keepers for the central bureau, and 
for all the departmental archives ; and almost all the 
historical documents of France are placed under the 
guardianship of educated men, with whom antiquarian 
history is the study of their lives. 
This great synoptical work is to be completed by an alpha- 
betical index, of which the plan is now under consideration, 
and by means of which all the existing documents on any 
subject, whether administrative or historical, may be 
readily discovered. This portion of the undertaking will 
be performed under the direction of the Imperial Go- 
vernment. Such an admirable scheme of indexing has 
never before been applied to the archives of any state in 
the world. Few governments have ever possessed the 
means of carrying out such a grand national work ; and, 
still fewer, it must in justice be added, would have thought 
of undertaking it. What the government of the first 
Napoleon did for the laws of his country, that of the third 
is now achieving for the memorials of the past. 
