Vénalité, capitalisme de cour et pratiques d’écriture (xviie-xviiie siècle) : réflexions préliminaires

Abstract

While recent studies have refocused our attention on the role of the court in the emergence of the bureaucratic state, this study seeks to integrate the archival aspects of this process with the informal archival practices of the Parisian elites that staffed the royal bureaucracy. By focusing on three cases related to the venality of office – at first blush, a clear example of highly regularized and documented market transactions – it places the formal documents in the context of memoirs and private collections of documents generated by the Perrault, d’Ormesson and Lamoignon families. Studying the private documentary practices of these families as part of the broader phenomenon of “court capitalism”, this article stresses the relations between formal and informal ways of archiving the court. Relations of power with the court formed the basis for action on the part of urban elites, and their documentary practices should be part of our understanding of the wide gamut of ways the court was archived, as it became a centre of attention of French elites.

Keywords

• Perrault
• Ormesson
• Lamoignon
• venality
• court capitalism
• memoires