Joseph d'Hémery

Joseph d'Hémery (born February 22, 1722 in Stenay , † October 5, 1806 in Paris ) was a high-ranking French official of the Ancien Régime .

Life

D'Hémery was the eldest son of Joseph d'Hémery and his wife Françoise Blondeau into a merchant family. In January 1739 he joined the Clermont Cavalry Regiment as a cadet , where he served two years.

On January 16, 1741, he acquired the position of exempt (a police officer rank) in the company of Lieutenant Criminel de Robe courte du Châtelet de Paris , the police force responsible for guarding the prisons and courts of law in the capital, through the purchase of an office that was customary in pre-revolutionary France was responsible. In 1748 d'Hémery himself held the rank of commanding lieutenant Criminel and was appointed Inspecteur de la Librairie sur les ports on June 10 of the same year (inspector of the book trade in the ports); the office of Inspecteurs de la Librairie existed at that time fourfold, with different areas of responsibility. The task of the inspectors was the nationwide supervision of the book trade and publishing industry as well as the writers. Soon after taking office, d'Hémery was given the post of another of the four inspectors, and in the following years he steadily expanded his competencies. On April 26, 1757, he was appointed Inspecteur Général de la Librairie by royal decree and was thus the supreme supervisor of the book trade, publishing and printing; In addition, there were various further functions and additional positions that he acquired in the following years.

Although d'Hémery acquired his offices through purchase and patronage , as was customary at the time , he took his duties seriously and was extremely hard-working, as the documents received show. On October 21, 1773 he asked to be allowed to retire into private life after 41 years in civil service while retaining his official title, which he was granted on November 4. After his retirement, he was in January 1775 as Deputy Chief of maréchaussée the Ile-de-France appointed, then transported on 31 December inspector general. On February 23, 1776 he was made a knight of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis . On April 29, 1784, he resigned and entered as a police officer in retirement , however, was for the December 13, 1788 Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry appointed.

Despite his many years of activity in the field of censorship in the service of the Ancien Régime, d'Hémery remained unmolested during the French Revolution ; nor were his pension entitlements seriously questioned. He died at the age of 84 in his home on Rue du Pré Saint-Gervais in Paris.

Historiques des Auteurs

Joseph d'Hémery left records of great importance for researching the history of pre-revolutionary France: Immediately after taking up his post as Inspecteur de la Librairie in 1748, he began to create an extensive personal file of French writers, which was constantly updated. The data collection entitled Historiques des Auteurs contains files in alphabetical order on a total of 501 authors from the mid-18th century, which corresponds to more than a third of the French writers of that time. D'Hémery used standardized forms with clear categories in which, among other things, information about the origin, age, career, living conditions and views of the persons concerned was noted. It covers both important authors of great influence in the intellectual world and third-rate writers without any weight, so that a more comprehensive picture emerges.

D'Hémery did not make the records for publication or to pass on to his superiors, but for his own use. Therefore, he had no reservations about recording his own views on the respective authors and thereby showing that he also showed appreciation for works and writers who were not in the favor of the authorities. Joseph d'Hémery identified himself in these notes as a civil servant who, out of sincere conviction, showed unconditional loyalty to the Crown and the Church, but at the same time himself had already taken up the ideas of the Enlightenment and did not justify criticism of the prevailing conditions as a crime or a cause for intervention looked at, but sometimes even sympathized with the authors.

The Historiques des Auteurs are of particular value , as they provide insight into the complex web of personal relationships and mutual protection that pervaded society as a whole in pre-revolutionary France and that at that time, without being questioned, formed the basis for almost every social one and professional advancement.

family

Joseph d'Hémery was married three times. On March 20, 1742 he married Marie-Madeleine-Gabrielle Roussel, daughter of Bernard Roussel, privy councilor and inspector of the Paris police. From this marriage there were four children: Joseph-Bernard (born September 15, 1748, † September 27, 1774); Marie-Joseph-Charles († August 10, 1782); Henriette-Louise and Joseph-Alexandre. Marie-Madeleine-Gabrielle died on September 18, 1788.

On October 10, 1789, d'Hémery married Marie-Marguerite Lesclapart, who died in 1799. On February 23, 1800, he entered into a third marriage with the widow Marie-Madeleine Wolff, which survived him.

literature

Robert Darnton: The Great Cat Massacre - Forays into French culture before the revolution . Carl Hanser Verlag, 1989
Bibliothèque Nationale (ed.): Inventaire de la Collection Anisson sur l'histoire de l'imprimerie et la librairie, principalement à Paris . E. Leroux, Paris 1900
David Thomas Pottinger: The French book trade in the ancien régime, 1500-1791 . Harvard University Press, 1958
Laurence L. Bongie: From Rogue to Everyman: a Foundling's Journey to the Bastille . McGill-Queen's Press, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Hémery, Joseph d '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French official
DATE OF BIRTH	February 22, 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stenay
DATE OF DEATH	October 5, 1806
Place of death	Paris

[1] Inspector de la Librairie

[2] Claus von Wagner: The magazine and book market in France in the 18th century. historicum.net