ÉTATS GÉNÉRAUX DE 1789. - Collection of around... - Lot 142 - Rossini

ÉTATS GÉNÉRAUX DE 1789. - Collection of around one hundred printed documents relating to the convocation of the Estates General and the elections of deputies for 1789. Large volume in-4, marbled basane, ornate spine, red and green titles, red edges (Late 18th century binding). Exceptional collection of around 100 printed documents relating to the Estates General held in Versailles in May 1789. The collection opens with the Lettre du Roi pour la convocation des États-Généraux à Versailles le 27 avril 1789, et règlement y annexé (Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1789; 24 pages), in its original edition, followed by a number of separate pieces giving instructions to the baillis and sénéchaux who were to depute directly or indirectly to the États Généraux. This is followed by some forty pieces from the Imprimerie Royale presses, containing the King's letters and regulations addressed to the bailliages and sénéchaussées of the various towns and provinces convened for this historic event (Languedoc, Alsace, Bourgogne, Brtagne, Lorraine et Barrois, Roussillon, Franche-Comté, Navarre, Maine, Corse, Artois, Hainaut, Provence, comté de Foix, principauté d'Orange, pays basque, pays de Soule, Chartres, Bigorre, Rouen, Paris, Metz, etc.).). There are also lists of deputies from Paris and the surrounding area appointed to the preliminary assembly of the Estates General. 12 items form a set of great interest for the history of the pre-Revolutionary riots of April 1789: 2 documents (a Sentence du Châtelet de Paris dated April 17 and a Arrêt du Parlement dated April 20) concerning the maintenance of order and public tranquility in preparation for the assemblies to be held in Paris, and 10 documents relating to the riots that broke out on April 27 and 28, 1789 in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris, where hundreds of workers stormed and devastated Jean-Baptiste Réveillon's royal painted paper factory, following rumors of a wage cut. These documents include two judgments handed down by the Criminal Chamber of the Châtelet de Paris, which condemned various people accused of taking part in the riots, including a couverturier and a gagne-denier who were sent to the gallows; an Exposé justificatif for Sieur Réveillon, recounting his descent into hell and the looting of his factory; an Exposé justificatif for sieur Henriot, the King's salpetrier, who suffered the same fate as the previous one; and a precious letter signed by an abbot recounting the terrible events in the faubourg Saint-Antoine (2 1/2 pages in-8), dated April 29 (1789) and addressed to Monsieur Le Paige bailli du Temple (stamp and red wax seal damaging the facing printed text): I owe you the most terrible & frightening details of what is happening in our faubourg. You know the grievance that the people had against Réveillon, they wanted to burn & destroy everything in the house, as they had done the day before with another private individual in the neighborhood [...] they broke into the unfortunate man's house, opened the doors to their comrades & climbed into all the apartments, I leave it to you to think, Sir, of the appalling damage they did, the flames & looting consumed everything in his house [....] However, they are not satisfied, they want to avenge the blood of their brothers which is flowing in the towns, and we are told that at this moment they are even more numerous than yesterday, & most of them are all armed with rifles which they have taken from the bourgeois or from the various guards. I fear very much for our troops [...] yesterday we saw such a large number of dead on the scene [...] several burghers who were too curious, imprudent and unfortunate were killed [...] God forbid that his wrath should be stayed on us any longer [...] I give you the details as an eyewitness of all these evils [...]. Lastly, the volume was crammed with a dozen handwritten pieces, most of them addressed to Le Paige, Bailiff of the Temple, suggesting that the collection was compiled by him. Joints restored.