[Révolution Française]. Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de l'année 1789

4 volumes in-8, marbled calf, cipher and revolutionary motto stamped in gold at the center of the boards, smooth spine, decorated edges, marbled edges. Binding from the revolutionary period.

195 x 120 mm.

[French Revolution]. Memoirs to Serve the History of the Year 1789 by a Society of Men of Letters.
Paris, 1790.

Famous and rare first edition recounting the first revolutionary days.

“One could attempt to determine in the revolutionary course the moment when the Revolution, no longer content to stage itself, to be shown to its actors and its children in a pedagogy of narcissism which, aided by distance, turns into commemorative practice, becomes the subject of analysis regarding its origins, its meaning and its future, and can be inscribed in a historiographic discourse which grasps it not only in its proper flow but also in the movement of a history that goes beyond it. No doubt, the denunciation of Aristocrats, Priests, the Court and the King may serve as an unspoken identification of its causes and thus of the origins of the revolutionary process. ‘It's Voltaire's fault, it's Rousseau's fault,’ is proclaimed on one side; ‘it's the fault of the Aristos and Madame Veto,’ is thundered on the other. It must be admitted that the analysis is hardly precise, and that causes so general do not allow us to understand the reasons for the events, the mechanics of the incident, or its place in historical development. For anyone contemplating the mass of writings spawned by the Revolution, the weight of the most immediate contemporary is evident. The commemoration by the Revolution itself of July 14, 1789, and other founding dates should not be misleading. First, because it folds the revolutionary event in on itself and makes it almost impossible to connect it to the preceding history, to references outside itself (such as the English or American Revolution, to stay within the recent past). But also because, in instituting a cult of origins, it asserts a birth and a rupture, a radical specificity that highlights its strangeness to all past history and its absolute difference. The awareness of inventing, of entering a new era where time and space are subjected to new measures, so vivid among the Revolutionaries, led to this impossibility of a historical grasp that is neither fragmented nor cut off from all other history.” (Jean-Marie Goulemot).

July 14, 1789: “...Almost all the news that had arrived from Paris during the morning gave hope for the return of calm and peace to the capital. Many deputies even thought they could dispense with going to the assembly after lunch. However, rumblings began to disturb this moment of tranquility, when M. the Viscount of Noailles arrived at full speed from Paris. His appearance alone announced what he had to tell. He entered the assembly, surrounded by deputies. There, he described what he had seen himself: the entire Parisian bourgeoisie under arms, disciplined by French Guards and Swiss mercenaries; the cannons from the Invalides and seized muskets; all the noble families forced to shut themselves in their homes; the Bastille stormed, and M. de Launay, its governor, who had fired on the citizens, slaughtered.

It is easy to imagine the terrible impression these disastrous news had on the Nation’s representatives. Immediately, a delegation to the king was decided upon, in which the Viscount of Noailles would join as a witness of the fatal truths to be conveyed.
While the deputies had gone to His Majesty, a delegation from the electors and the police committee of Paris arrived. They gave a detailed account of the capital's disorders, its misfortunes, and the vigilant and enlightened care its citizens were taking to prevent even greater disasters. They told how disgracefully M. de Launay, after allowing citizens who bore pleas for peace into the Bastille's courtyards, had raised the bridges and ordered fire on them. They seemed unaware that M. de Launay had already paid for so great a crime. They added that couriers sent to various provinces had been stopped, that the people had seized the dispatches they were carrying and wanted them opened; that the police committee had opposed it; that another courier, sent to the Bastille’s governor, had also been stopped; that his parcels had been opened and that they found the order given to the governor to fire on the people as soon as he saw fit. Several voices demanded the names of those who had signed such orders, and who should atone for them with their heads. M. de Clermont-Tonnerre said: this is not the time to think about vengeance; and that of the law and justice must be slow. M. the Marquis de La Fayette, acting as vice-president, expressed to the deputies from Paris the feelings of the national assembly, telling them they would themselves hear the king’s reply awaited by the assembly, and thus have proof of the care it had taken to prevent from Paris the disasters that were multiplying there. By acclamation, it was decided a second delegation would immediately go to lay these new facts before the king; but M. the Marquis de Montesquiou remarked that, before sending the second delegation, it was necessary to hear the reply to the first. It soon arrived. The king replied, in substance, that he was afflicted by the ills and disorders afflicting Paris; that he was constantly concerned with them; that the troops had already been withdrawn from Paris and that he had ordered his general officers to take command of the Paris militia. A long and gloomy silence followed this reply, and the second delegation left...”

Precious copy of this rare first edition preserved in its contemporary bindings with the revolutionary cipher “Pro Patria Fondeville”.