Original Documents And Proceedings From The Damiens Trial, 1757, First Edition

Original Documents and Proceedings of the Trial of Robert-François Damiens, Both in the Provost’s Court of the Hôtel and in the Court of Parliament.

Paris, Pierre-Guillaume Simon, Printer to Parliament, 1757.

In-4to, 610 pages + 28-page table of contents. First edition of one of the most famous judicial collections published during the reign of Louis XV, bringing together the official documents relating to the trial of Robert-François Damiens (1715–1757), who attempted to assassinate the sovereign on January 5, 1757.

Printed by Pierre-Guillaume Simon, printer to the Parliament, the work brings together the interrogations, confrontations, rulings, and procedural documents drawn up both before the Provost’s Court of the Hôtel and before the Parliament of Paris. It constitutes one of the essential sources for the study of this case, which profoundly and lasting shook the kingdom and left its mark on the history of criminal justice under the Ancien Régime.

The volume is particularly notable for its typographic composition in red and black on the title page, following a tradition reserved for prestigious official publications. It is adorned with an elegant engraved watermark and printed on high-quality laid paper.

The execution of Damiens, carried out at the Place de Grève on March 28, 1757, remains the last instance in France of the application of the penalty reserved for the crime of regicide. The circumstances of his execution, meticulously recounted in this collection, had a profound impact on his contemporaries and occupy a major place in the historiography of criminal justice, particularly through the works of Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish.

An interesting volume for the political, judicial, and parliamentary history of the 18th century.