Set Of 27 Prints—louis XVI, The Estates-general, The Bastille, The French Revolution, 1787–1791

A collection of approximately 27 brochures, booklets, and printed documents dating from 1787 to 1791, comprising official, parliamentary, and political texts relating to the final years of the reign of Louis XVI, the crisis between the monarchy and the Parliament of Paris, the convening of the Estates-General, and the early years of the French Revolution.
The collection notably includes a substantial series of decrees, remonstrances, petitions, the king’s responses, and letters patent concerning the Parliament of Paris during 1787 and 1788.
These texts provide a chronological account of the institutional and financial tensions that preceded the convening of the Estates-General.
Among the principal documents is the opening address of the Estates-General delivered at Versailles on May 5, 1789, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1789.
This booklet includes the speech by Louis XVI, the speech by the Minister of Justice, and the report by the Director General of Finance, Jacques Necker.
A complete 118-page copy, followed by the general statement of revenues and fixed expenditures, including the table dated May 1, 1789, showing an annual deficit of 56,150,000 livres.
Also included is the *Précis exact de la prise de la Bastille* (Accurate Account of the Storming of the Bastille), 1789, an account written under the supervision of the principal figures who participated in the events and read on the same day at City Hall.
Complete 10-page pamphlet with a final errata sheet.
The collection also includes the *Cahier de doléances et remontrances* of the Clergy of Paris, *intra muros*, Paris, published by Claude Simon, printer to His Excellency the Archbishop, 1789.
The text was adopted by the General Assembly of the City of Paris on May 18, 1789, and submitted to the deputies of the Clergy of the City of Paris on May 18, 1789, and subsequently submitted to the deputies of the clergy at the Estates-General.
This copy consists of 31 pages.
Also of note is the very interesting memorandum concerning the capital, presented by Mr. de Forge, former personal squire to the king, addressed to the deputies of the Estates-General and devoted in particular to a project to supply Paris with clean water; it consists of 12 pages.
The parliamentary crisis of 1787–1788 is represented by the Remonstrances of the Parliament of Paris, adopted on July 24, 1787—a complete 19-page document—followed by the king’s response and several parliamentary decrees, as well as by the Representations of the Parliament of Paris of January 9, 1788, with the princes and peers in attendance—a complete 4-page document.
Also included is the sixth and final part of *Ideas of a Citizen*—*Clarifications Requested from Mr. de Calonne*, attributed to Abbé Nicolas Beaudeau, a physiocratic economist; a complete 28-page pamphlet concerning the economic and financial debates preceding the Revolution.
The revolutionary period is finally represented by two pieces devoted to Voltaire: Voltaire’s Transfer to Paris and Details of the Ceremony to Be Held on July 4, decreed by the Directory of the Department of Paris based on the report by Mr. Charron, printed by Lottin the Elder and J-R Lottin, printers for the municipality, complete in 37 pages; as well as the petition to the National Assembly regarding Voltaire’s transfer, a new revised and corrected edition, complete in 8 pages, compiling the protests and signatures opposing the honors bestowed upon Voltaire’s ashes.

These main pamphlets are accompanied by approximately sixteen other short documents ranging from 2 to 4 pages; parliamentary decrees, royal replies, letters patent, and various official texts, primarily relating to the events of 1787 to 1788.

The documents are preserved in their original form as loose pamphlets and notebooks, mostly on laid paper with wide margins. Several still bear their original stitching or traces of former stitching. The collection has been preserved without modern binding.
Condition typical of this type of document, which circulated and was preserved in loose-leaf form: creases, wrinkles, foxing, tears, and marginal losses; some pages are more fragile, such as the cover of the opening of the Estates-General, which shows visible tears. The main pamphlets described here are complete.

• Format: 22 x 14 cm
• A collection of documents devoted to the political and institutional events leading from the parliamentary crisis of 1787–1788 to the Estates-General of 1789 and the early years of the French Revolution.