Book and Regime in Eighteenth-Century France

FAIN: FA-11478-76

Raymond F. Birn
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Eugene, OR 97403)

To write a book which will investigate the administration and ideology of the bureau de la librairie, the agency under the Ancien Regime that was responsible for both the official government censorship of books and the economic well-being of the trade. Grantee's book will be comprised of a narrative history of the bureau, an identification and social-cultural analysis of the personnel, and analyses of the ideology and practice of government censorship, of the regimes economic policies for the French book trade, and of the attitudes of sellers, printers, journalists, and authors toward censorship and economic protection. Grantee's previous research suggests that administrator of the bureau developed ideas on censorship and economic protection that contradicted their stated mission, thus preparing the road for liberty of the press in France.