Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris

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The Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris (Diary of a Citizen of Paris) is an anonymous chronicle that describes life in Paris from 1405 to 1449 in French . It is one of the most important sources for the first half of the 15th century and thus for the second half of the Hundred Years War .

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The text, the title of which is from the 19th century, describes the reign of King Charles VI. (1380–1422) and Charles VII (1422–1461), above all political and ecclesiastical events affecting Paris, but also dealt with the economic consequences of the war against the English occupation of northern France, food prices, the weather, crop failures, etc.

The chronicle begins suddenly, almost in the middle of the sentence in 1405, in September, as the context shows: "... And about ten or twelve days later the locks and keys of the gates of Paris were changed ..." so that from the beginning gives the impression that not all of the text has been handed down. The years 1406 and 1407 are completely missing, 1408 starts again in the middle of a sentence and in the middle of September. Even after that, the chronicle is not always up-to-date, as events are often noted that were several months ago, but this does not damage its information content. It is reported largely without comment, in any case without any knightly or religious decorations, but sometimes the author dares to criticize the conditions and those responsible: "Item, the king left Paris on the 3rd day of December in 1437 without until then to have done something good for the city of Paris ... "or, a few years later, in October 1441, when he reported how the Duke of Orléans came ," to take a beak full of the poor city of Paris, and then on the 20th day of the month in question he returned to his country without doing anything good, either for peace or anything else ".

The chronicle ends on October 28, 1449, the feast day of the apostles Simon and Jude, and a large and reportable procession held on this day, that is, it breaks off with it without an end being recognizable or formulating a reason for the end would.

The different editions

The oldest version of the journal is a copy from the second half of the 15th century; it is in the collections of the Vatican. Another copy from the 15th century is kept in Oxford, but it has been cleared of all passages which deal critically with the English. Four other copies are known from the end of the 16th century. These copies are based on the Vatican copy, but contain additional details. This also applies to the copy from Aix and the copy from the Bibliothèque nationale de France .

The first editions, including those by Étienne Pasquier from 1596 , are incomplete. A first complete edition was printed in 1729 under the title Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France et de Bourgogne .

The author

Although the author does not disclose any information about himself, it is certain that the author was a member of the Church. Historians of the 19th century suspected Jean Beaurigout to be the creator of the work, the parish priest of the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in the later 3rd arrondissement , Alexandre Tuetey, who published an edition in 1881, assigned the journal Jean Chuffart, a canon at the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral , which is known to have represented the position of the English and Burgundians, similar to the author, before joining Charles VII after he returned to Paris.

Modern editions

Footnotes

  1. ^ 1. "… Et environ dix ou douze jours après, furent changées les serreures et clefs des portes de Paris,…", translations by Henriette Beese
  2. ↑ 731. "Item, le roy se desparti de Paris le IIIe jour de decembre l'an mil IIIIc XXXVII, sans ce que nul bien y feist à la ville de Paris pour lors, ..."
  3. ↑ 813. "… vint le duc d'Orleans à Paris prendre un beschée sur la povre ville de Paris, et puis s'en retourna en son pais le XXe jour dudit moys, sans nul bien fayre pour la paix ne pour autre chose quelconque "
  4. ↑ 862. (for the year 1446): "... et vraiement il a disputé à nous au colliège de Navarre, qui estions plus de cinquante de plus parfaiz clercs de l'Université de Paris ..." - "... he has with us in the College of Navarre disputed that we were more than fifty of the most perfect clerics of the University of Paris ... "