RBZPR

Robespierre’s books on 9 Thermidor

On 9 Thermidor Year II, around 3.30 pm, while the five outlawed deputies descend to the bar of the Convention, an order coming from the Committee of General Security reached the Committee of the section of the Tuileries, charging the citizens Labasse and Chambellan with «going [to] rue Honoré, n° 39, Section des Piques, house of [the citizen] called Dupleix» in order to « here and now [put] under arrest, in various maisons d'arrêt in Paris, the citizens Dupleix, father and son and the woman Dupleix, [after putting] their papers under seal ». Labasse and Chambellan declared:

«We went [upstairs] by a small interior stairway which [leads] to the apartment of Robespierre the Elder… Sur le derrière, said apartment composed of a first chamber in which the bed of father Dupleix and the cylinder desk of Robespierre are… and a small cabinet serving [as a] library… Four other small chambers or cabinets adjoin the ones with the others within which Robespierre’s drafts and papers are. We have affixed the seals…»

Charged with the analysis of Robespierre’s papers, the commission [of] Courtois «had almost completely fulfilled» its works on 12 Thermidor Year III (30 July 1795).

Two days later, on 14 Thermidor Year III, the works that were submitted by citizen Duplay, out of prison, «in whose custody they had been left», were directed towards the national Dépôt littéraire, rue de Lille, where they were «packetized» by citizen Delassaux, commissary of the office of the Domaine national of the department of Paris, who set up the list of works [that were] part of the «library» of Robespierre.

Here is this inventory. The only list of it was published in 1891, unfortunately in an incomplete and sometimes incorrect form.

The document

Deposited at the national literary deposit, rue de Lille

14 Thermidor Year III

Inventory of the books of the condemned Robespierre the Elder, rue Honoré, n° 366, section of the Place Vendôme, submitted to us by citizen Duplay in whose custody they had been left, by citizen Delassaux, commissary of the Agency of the Domaine National of the Department of Paris, whose description and packaging will be made as follows:

N° 1.

Pictures of the Revolution, in folio figure, 14 livraisons;

Secret foreign correspondences with the ministers, the Committee of Public Safety, etc;

Result of the foreign trade of the French Republic during the first half of 1792. paper-backed, 2 copies;

Ancient history by Rollin, in-4°, t. 2 and 4;

History of the Wars of Italy by Guicciardini, t. 2;

History of the treaty of Westphalia, third volume….

N° 2.

29 vol. in-12 :

Works of Jousse and Potier, [their] Civil comment of the decree of 1667, 2 copies

N° 3. 

16 vol. :

Roman Revolution, 2 vol., An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke, 4 vol., Thoughts of La Rochefoucault, Institution in ecclesiastical law by Fleury; the others do not deserve description

N° 4. 

14 vol. in-8° et in-12 :

Dictionary of Boyer, second volume, The Alembic of the laws, Essays on Man by Pope, Italian Grammar by Venerony in-8° et in-12, Essays on politics and morality by the chancellor Bacon, Euclid’s Elements 1753,

The Guardian, 2 vol., the rest does not deserve description

N° 5. 

13 vol. in-12 :

English grammar by Boyer, Institution at the French law by Argou 1730 et 1771, 2 copies, 2 vol., Principles of jurisprudence and others

N° 6. 

18 vol. incomplete works:

The Adventures of Telemachus, first volume, History of Malte, volume 4, The Spectator, volume 5 and 7, the others do not deserve description….

Brochures

N° 7. 

30 vol. in-8° :

Journal of public instruction, 5 vol., Constitution of England by Delolme, 2 vol., The divine philosophy applied to liberty, 3 vol., Crimes of the Queens of France, The natural morale reduced to the principle of physics, Arithmetic by Bossu, Arithmetic and Geometry by Mogué, 2 vol., Summary of the cane by Dutrône, the rest does not deserve description

N° 8.

 20 vol. :

Official report of the Convention and others

N° 9.

42 vol. :

Revolution of Cork, of India, Code of the administration of the national good and other affairs of the time

N° 10. 

23 vol. in-12 paperback:

History of Great Britain, 2 vol., Logographic Journal, volumes 22, 23 et 24, Treaty of the provisions forced by earnings, 3 vol., Social picture, 3 vol., The rights and duties of the Citizen by Mably, the others do not deserve description