Phyllis Leffler - The ''Histoire Raisonnée,'' 1660-1720. A Pre-Enlightenment Genre
Phyllis Leffler - The ''Histoire Raisonnée,'' 1660-1720. A Pre-Enlightenment Genre
Phyllis Leffler - The ''Histoire Raisonnée,'' 1660-1720. A Pre-Enlightenment Genre
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access to Journal of the History of Ideas
BY PHYLLIS K. LEFFLER
... celle qui a receu divers ornemens de 1'esprit et de l'adresse des Histo
... qui sans s'arrester a l'ecorce, et a l'apparence des choses, vajusque d
pens6e des personnes qui ont agi, d6couvre leurs intentions, et fait vo
1'evenement des choses qu'ils ont entreprises la sagesse de leur condu
leur d6faut dejugement.'
219
6In this article I intend to explore the attitudes toward history expressed by these
representatives of the histoire raisonnee. Therefore, relatively little analysis of the
actual structure of the works is possible. For further discussion of the format of these
works, see my, "L'Histoire Raisonn6e: A Study of French Historiography, 1660-1720"
(Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1971), Ch. VI.
7One could also explore the many references to history made by non-historians of
the period. The anti-historical Cartesian thought, for example, adds to the complexity
of the issue, and the reaction to Cartesianism helped develop the pre-Enlightenment
spirit. The exploration of this strain, however, would require a far more extensive
article, so I shall limit my remarks to a group who can be identified as historians.
8This article implicitly continues the debate on the dating of historicism in France.
Works contending that the Enlightenment era marks the beginning of modern his-
toriography include John B. Black, The Art of History (London, 1926); J. H. Brumfitt,
Voltaire: Historian (London, 1958); Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlighten-
ment (Boston, 1965); Peter Gay, The Enlightenment. An Interpretation, 2 vols. (New
York, 1966-69). In 1970, Donald Kelley and George Huppert claimed that French legal
humanists of the Renaissance were responsible for the development of historicism.
They look to the studies of legists like Estienne Pasquier, Francois Baudouin, Charles
Dumoulin, Lancelot de La Popeliniere, and Pierre Pithou, whose historical conscious-
ness arose from the nature of their work. Yet, these men were not engaged in the
writing of narrative histories, and commentators on seventeenth-century historiog-
'?Bodin's Methodus was more concerned with exposing general laws than with
examining particular circumstances: Huppert, Idea of Perfect History, 94.
"Le Moyne, On the Art both of Writing and Judging of History, 117-18.
'2Ibid., 29; also 53, 92.
... savoir, c'est connoltre les choses par leurs causes; ainsi s
c'est connoitre les hommes, qui en fournissent la matiere, c
hommes sainement; 6tudier l'Histoire, c'est etudier les motif
les passions des hommes, pour en connoitre tous les ressorts
d6tours, enfin toutes les illusions qu'elles savent faire aux es
prises qu'elles font aux coeurs.16
Boulainvilliers was one of the many historians who perceived that men
were both responsible for and influenced by the unique cultural climate
in which they lived. Increasingly, theorists claimed that historians had
to examine the differences as well as the similarities in the human con-
dition.
The cultural relativism which had also inspired the work of
sixteenth-century legal humanists23 led to the contention that the his-
torian's task was to examine the customs, manners, and spirit of na-
tions. Much earlier than Boulainvilliers, Charles Sorel (1596?-1674),
typical of seventeenth-century Gallicanism, emphasized the importance
of knowing the culture of the French. His own history of France, he
claimed, would include information on the style of dress, the language
and laws in use, and the arts which have been practiced, as well as the
more common details on the founding of cities, churches, colleges, and
the lives of kings.24 Pere Gabriel Daniel (1649-1728), too, believed that
the depiction of moeurs was the proper field for the historian:
La science de l'Historien se fait sentir par les remarques qu'il seme dans sa
narration sur les moeurs des Peuples dont il fait l'Histoire. Par ce mot de
moeurs, on n'entend pas seulement le genie de la Nation, mais encore les Cou-
tumes, les Usages, les Loix, la Jurisprudence, la maniere du Gouvernement
Civil et Militaire, et autres choses semblables, avec les changements qui y sont
arrives dans la suite des tems.25
Le point le plus n6cessaire et le plus rare pour un historien, est qu'il sache
exactement la forme du gouvernement, et le detail des moeurs de la nation
dont il ecrit l'histoire, pour chaque siecle. Un peintre qui ignore ce qu'on
nomme il costume ne peint rien avec verite.... Chaque peuple change souvent
pour ses propres moeurs. . . . Notre nation ne doit point etre peinte d'une
facon uniforme: elle a eu des changemens continuels .. .28
26Huppert, Idea of Perfect History, 35, 37, 45, 47, 63; idem, "Naissance de l'histoire
en France: Les 'Recherches' d'Estienne Pasquier," Annales. Economies, Societes,
Civilisations, 23 (Jan.-Fev., 1968), 71, 76; Kelley, Foundations of Modern Histori-
cal Scholarship, 285-90.
27La Fare, Memoires, 16, 18-20.
28Francois de Fenelon, "Lettre a M. Dacier, Secr6taire perp6tuel de 1'Acad6mie
Franqaise, sur les occupations de 1'Academie," Oeuvres completes de Fenelon, 10 vols.
(Paris, 1852), VI, 639-40.
29See esp. Henri comte de Boulainvilliers, Etat de la France, 6 vols. (London, 1737);
and his Histoire de l'ancien gouvernement de la France, 3 vols. (La Haye, 1727).
Ne raconter que les grands dvenemens, et n'6crire rien en detail que les causes
des grands changemens.... Songer bien que les Rois sont a la verite les plus
30Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Parallele des trois premiers rois Bourbons
(Paris, 1967), 58; also 59, 67, 69, 74-82, 147, 305-06; also Memoires de Saint-Simon, 41
vols. (Paris, 1879), I, 10; XXVIII, 276, 280.
31A similar interest in the analysis of causes had been expressed by La Popeliniere in
the sixteenth century as the basis for the "New History": Huppert, Idea of Perfect His-
tory, 26, 89, 137.
32Paul Pellisson-Fontanier, Histoire de Louis XIV, depuis la mort du Cardinal Ma-
zarin en 1661jusqu'a lapaix de Nimegue en 1678, 3 vols. (Paris, 1749), III, 48.
33Saint-Simon, Memoires, I, 5-6, 14, 18.
34Daniel, Histoire de France, I, Preface, xxv.
35 Fnelon, "Lettre a M. Dacier," Oeuvres completes de Fenelon, VI, 638.
Nous s;avons tous, que rien n'arrive dans le monde que par la permission de
Dieu ... mais l'Historien ne doit point entrer dans ces considerations, son de-
voir est d'exposer niiement les actions des hommes, et le motif pour lequel
elles ont est6 entreprises et executees. Car en effet, Dieu laisse agir les Crea-
tures raisonnables avec une liberte toute entiere: I1 concourt veritablement
avec les causes secondes; mais il ne leur impose aucune necessite d'agir.... .42
It was the task of the historian to analyze the concrete facts rather than
to delve into illusory metaphysical explanations in a work of his craft.
Man's actions were to be understood not as a function of final,
transcendental forces, but as a product of his personal psychological
motivations. To expose these motivations, the historian had to under-
stand not only the individual, but his culture, and his total environment.
History was a tableau not only of human life, but of the society at large.
Moreover, since each society was different and mutable, the historian
ought not engage in cross-cultural comparisons, but should examine
each cultural unit as a separate entity. Unlike sixteenth-century hu-
manists who used past cultures as a static basis of comparison,43 these
writers on the histoire raisonnee suggested that the heterogeneous
nature of cultures should be exposed as an example of the diversity in
civilization. By means of such statements, these historians clearly
foreshadowed the similar views expressed by French philosophes. These
seventeenth-century theorists acted as a catalyst to the emergence of
the spirit of the Enlightenment.
39Adam, Grandeur and Illusion, trans. Herbert Tint (New York, 1972), 124-25.
40Sorel, De laprudence, 19; Advertissement sur l'histoire, 109-10.
4"[Pierre de Lesconvel], Observations critiques sur l'histoire de France ecrite par
Mezerai (Paris, 1700), 2-3.
42Simon de Riencourt, Histoire de la monarchiefrancoise, 2 vols. (Paris, 1688), I,
Discours, 17.
43Pocock, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law, 5; Huppert, Idea of
Perfect History, 65. There is some ambiguity in sixteenth-century statements regarding
cultural relativism. At the same time that Pasquier argued that French and Roman
systems could be compared, he claimed that all laws were the product of history and
thus were relative to their culture: Huppert, ibid., 152-54.
... que son stile est dur, qu'il fait quelquefois des periodes mal liees, et qu'il
employe des termes barbares ou connus seulement du menu peuple... .48
Daniel Lombard, a respected critic, also had stated that while Me-
zeray's style was energetic, it was "ni pur, ni elegant ... ," and Gabrie
Daniel in his Histoire de France suggested that Mezeray should have
excluded all proverbs, base expressions, and gibes.49
In part, style was determined by subject matter. By describing com-
mon details, and fabulous occurrences, Mezeray was indulging the
desires of the menu peuple, Lesconvel claimed, rather than elevating
their tastes through descriptions of aristocratic life. Moreover, his fre-
quent exaggerations and his literary ostentation, typical of the
Renaissance imitation of ancient historians, deprived his work of
vraisemblance, the cardinal principle of classicist theory.50 Lombard,
Daniel, and Lesconvel all used classical literary theory to criticize a
Renaissance literary historian.
But the issue of the proper form of historical writing was not solved
with the criticism of Mezeray, and Daniel argued that the classical style
best suited the specific needs of the historian. Style, he wrote, should be
noble, but should also be simple, natural, and moderate. History, too,
has its appropriate style and eloquence which is far removed from ora
torical rhetoric.51 The historian must avoid the use of "romanesque
episodes, forced transitions, and harangues, primarily because feigned
and contrived materials divert the writer from his portrayal of th
46For the application of classicism to history: Wright, French Classicism, 21-22,
123; Bray, Revue des cours et conferences, No. 13 (Juin 1929), 443-49; No.12 (Mai
1929), 370-74; Martin Turnell, The Classical Moment: Studies of Corneille, Moliere,
and Racine (London, 1947), 7-12.
47This work also has been attributed to Daniel, and the Biographie Universelle, ed
Michaud, suggests that it earned Daniel much hostility from his contemporaries. Evans
actually claims that the work was Daniel's: Evans, L'historien Mezeray, 24.
48Lesconvel, Observations critiques, Avis.
49Daniel Lombard, Comparaison des deux Histoires de M. de Mezeray et du Pere
Daniel, en delux Dissertations, avec line dissertation preliminaire sur l'Utilite de I'His
toire (Amsterdam, 1723), 90; Daniel, Histoire de France, I, Preface, Ixxiii.
50Lesconvel, Observations critiques, 3-5, 15-16, 27, 58-60, 98-100, 149, 152-53,
187-88.
51 Daniel, Histoire de France, I, Preface, Ixxiii.
... ne prendre pas pour des veritez une bonne partie de ce qu'elle debite, estant
necessairement accompagnee des defauts de nostre humanite, qui ne produit
rien d'absolument parfait.62
Some may think that a knowledge of history should precede that of morality
am not of that opinion: it seems to me more useful and expedient to pos
the idea of the just and the unjust before possessing a knowledge of the action
and the men to whom one ought to apply it.91