Une justice froide ? L’ambiance thermique dans le palais de justice de Paris au XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

In keeping with the work dedicated to soundscape by historians such as Alain Corbin and Arlette Farge, this paper intends to consider the palais de justice of Paris in the 18th century as a setting for a study on temperature in the built environment. Based on the assessment of the heating devices and on accounts by the users of the Palais, e.g. lawyers and defendants, it reveals the extent to which cold is ubiquitous in this space. This ubiquity results from the attitude of the Palais authorities, which favoured preventive measures aimed at reducing heating-related fire risk, to the detriment of comfort. This is all the more striking since it sheds light on the lack of consideration of the Enlightenment’s theoretical reflections on and technical advances in thermal perception. This discussion reveals social behaviour and speech about justice structured by the opposition between heat and cold.

Keywords

• architecture
• cold
• heat
• sensory environment
• palais de justice
• temperature