The collections
1789: Collection de la Révolution Française
The National Library is currently in the process of fully cataloguing one of its major collectionsthe Collection de la Révolution Française.
The collection consists of 12 000 contemporary pamphlets relating to the French Revolution, all held in the Library's Rare Book stacks. Since its acquisition in 1962, adequate resources to catalogue these valuable items have been unavailable and access to the content has been mainly through a list supplied by the bookseller. For this reason public knowledge of this impressive collection's existence has been limited.
The first comprehensive listing of pre-1801 French books in Australian libraries began in 1978 with the Australia and New Zealand Early Imprints Project. By 1986 the listing was substantially complete in New Zealand and in most Australian states but the first holdings were not added to the Australian Bibliographic Network until March 1992. The first successful attempt at cataloguing part of the Collection de la Révolution Française occurred during the Australia's Book Heritage Resources (ABHR) project of 1993 and 1994 (funded by the Centre for Bibliographical and Textual Studies at Monash University) when 4000 pamphlet records were added to the network's database. After that, due to lack of funds, dwindling budgets and other priorities, no further cataloguing of this collection was undertaken. Until now.
The current revival of activity on the French Revolution pamphlets is due to several factors. The 4000 records created and added to ABN in 1993 contained only descriptive cataloguing, with minimal information and no subject headings. And although the National Library of Australia has a stronger collection of periodicals and monographs about the French Revolution than most libraries in the region, records of its pamphlets are needed to round out the subject area as a whole. So this year 400 of the pamphlets have been fully catalogued on ABN, with several subject headings. Progressively the gaps are being filled.
The Collection de la Révolution Française consists mainly of rare local official material such as tracts, pamphlets, ordinances, letters, edicts, proclamations, bills, minutes, reports, and lawsuits relating to the Convention and meetings of members of parliament, with or without the King. There is no comparable collection of original revolutionary pamphlets in any other Australian library or in the Southern Hemisphere.
Two libraries in the United States are known to hold a substantial collection of pamphlets about the French Revolution: the New York Public Library holds the Talleyrand Collection and the University of Kansas owns the Melvin Collection. Despite the fact that these two impressive collections are similar to the Collection de la Révolution Française, it is interesting to note that when research was done by subject experts it was concluded that 70% of the items and 520 authors of the various pamphlets in the National Library of Australia's Collection de la Révolution Française are in neither the Talleyrand Collection nor the Melvin Collection.
Other factors that enhance the importance of these pamphlets are their rarity and the vivid documentary impression that they give of the period. A sample of titles follows; they have been translated into English to convey the diverse coverage of the collection.
Letter to the King by the Parlement de Bordeaux Reforms to Be Done by the Etats-Généraux ... Denunciation of the Assemblée Nationale of Two Printing Presses On Measures Proposed by Mirabeau and Financial Subjects Law-suits Held at the Court of the Parlement de Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse Speeches on Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (26 August 1791) Law Concerning the Invalid Soldiers (17 April 1791) Report of the Comité des Finances Deliberation of the Council of Five Hundred Escape of the King and the Royal Family and Arrest of the King in Varennes (Tuesday 21 June 1791) Secret Causes of the Revolution of 9th and 10th Thermidor
The collection also contains a Petit dictionnaire des grands hommes de la Révolution (1790) listing the 136 men who played a fundamental role during the RevolutionCondorcet, Mirabeau, Camille Desmoulins, Fabre d'Eglantine, Bureaux de Puzi, Rabaud de Saint-Etienneto mention just a few, and, of course, the three main representative leaders, Marat, Danton and Robespierre (the first stabbed to death in his bath, the other two guillotined). Also included in this long list is another protagonist, Guillotin, a doctor whose invention was intended to cut short the suffering of a person condemned to death, and after whom the instrument of execution was named.
The description of this collection would not be complete without mentioning the actual condition of the pamphlets. After 210 years, the hand-made paper is in remarkable condition; except for some water-stained areas, it has retained its strength. The pamphlets are made of rag- or cotton-based laid paper (paper with a regular mesh impressed upon it by the mould in which it was made) and printed by the letterpress process. Rag and cotton papers do not degrade like today's wood pulp papers and can remain in good condition for many centuries. Certainly the passage of time has been kind to these pamphlets
In summary, the full cataloguing of the Collection de la Revolution (accent) Francaise (cedilla) will ensure that this resource is Internet-accessible to allthrough Kinetica, or the Library's own catalogue at http://www.nla.gov.au/webpac/
Vive la Collection!
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au