mathildeaquisexta

[mathildeaquisexta]

more Frev related doodles

[mathildeaquisexta]

[mathildeaquisexta]

Your musical alter ego during the French Revolution 🎶

Following this post about revolutionaries who played musical instruments, I decided to create a poll: How would you (or how do you imagine yourself) playing a musical instrument like characters from the French Revolution?

Option A: Like Sophie Carnot – You compose music on your instrument to accompany the poems of your beloved. Option B: Like Lucile Desmoulins – You're an excellent musician, but when things become too difficult, music no longer soothes your soul. Option C: Like Prieur de la Côte d'Or – You can play at least two instruments and compose music for your lifelong best friend’s poetry. Option D: Like Le Bas – In addition to your talent with a musical instrument, you sing very well. Option E: Like Saint-Just – Besides playing an instrument, you sing with one of your closest friends to entertain your your other friends . Option F: Like Gabrielle Danton – You enjoy making music with friends when they come over to visit. Option G: Like Manon Roland – You never part from your instrument, even when going to harsh places like prison. Option H: Like Pétion – You’re capable of playing your instrument even during important meetings about events that will shape your country’s future — so much so that it irritates your allies. Option I: Like Jean-Nicolas Pache and his daughter Sylvie Audouin née Pache – You play music when surrounded by family members after the work. Option J: Like Émile Babeuf – Your parents constantly have to remind you to practice your instrument, especially when you're absorbed in other hobbies. Option K: Like Louis Delgrès – You prefer to play your instrument to taunt your enemies, even in dangerous situations.

[mathildeaquisexta]

Robespierre, the respectable lawyer who saved the Revolution

What follows is the translation of a recent interview to Luigi Mascilli-Migliorini, a reputed Italian historian, focused on the Napoleonic Era. I found it peculiar for an expert of that period to talk rather positively of Robespierre and be aware of the black legend that has affected him for over two centuries. I though you might be interested in reading it, so there it is:

Professor, why is all the responsibility for the Terror attributed to Robespierre? He was no dictator, but just a member - though with lots of influence - of a large Committee [established] for public safety.

It's true. There was no formal hierarchy structure with Robespierre at the top. Moreover, he was not alone. Nevertheless, during the Terror, one turned often to him and, in a way, he could determine the destiny of some characters. Even today, it's not that men of major formal relevance are those really in charge as far as political parties are concerned. He wasn't even that extraordinary of an orator, he was a bit boring, but he had a sort of electric ability to catch the mood of the masses and give it a political shape.

According to Albert Mathiez the Terror was necessary to save France, which was threatened by the armed European monarchies and by those who wanted to come to terms with the enemy. Do you share this view as well?

My view can't be distant from that of a great historian like Mathiez. Nevertheless, I would like to reverse the issue from him, who was also a "militant". In the spring of 1793, revolutionary France was very fragile: the war -- badly waged by the Girondins the year before -- made the revolutionary spirit precarious and the internal situation unstable. There was the actual risk that foreign troops would put Louis XVI back on the throne. Was the Terror absolutely necessary? It surely saved the Revolution. Could it have been implemented in a different way though?

So the counter-evidence is missing, isn't it?

We have proof of fragility. We don't have the counter-evidence that the Terror was necessary. We can't not say what Mathiez said, but he said that in an assertive way. Personally, I'm not very sure that Danton's death strengthened revolutionary France.

Did the Terror make more victims than other revolutionary periods?

No, it didn't. The White Terror, the showdown after Robespierre's fall, did way more victims, of that we are pretty sure.

Robespierre proposed a Declaration of the rights of the man and the citizen which called for equality in front of the law, protection for the poor, progressive taxation, education for everyone, limitation of private property in the name of common good. It's hard to reconcile all of this with the public image of a bloodthirsty madman.

He was by no means a bloodthirsty madman. His horizons included a republic that today we would define as emancipatory. It has nothing to do with socialism, even though for some in the 20th century, Robespierre became the hero, who had he been let free to do it, France would have accomplished socialism. He was a rousseauiste, not even among the most ardent ones, convinced that equality lay behind the matter of liberty and a retouch to private property was necessary. Without Stalinist emphasis or generalized expropriation, instead, with common sense, to redress terrible inequalities. He starts from liberty in order to get to equality, not vice versa. This makes him belong to political groups which are rather distant to accomplished socialism.

[This] makes him a contemporary of ours.

Indeed. If there's anything to be credited to him (beyond the either positive or negative consequences of the Terror) it’s that the Revolution couldn't fail. He was neither a rebel, nor a revolutionary by profession like Stalin, Lenin or Gramsci. He was not "unkempt" like Danton or Marat, he was a good-mannered, old-fashioned man. He was someone, who, finding himself caught in the midst of the Revolution from the start, he couldn't stop or go back. All of this in the name of revolutionary values, chief among them liberty. There's a beautiful sentence: "the Revolution is illegal like liberty itself". One can't ask the Revolution the syntax of peaceful times.

-------

I wish to thank @theblackrook for checking and correcting mistakes in the translation <3

[mathildeaquisexta]

Sharing this bit of a dialogue I imagined between Napoleon and Carnot when the latter resigned from his position of Minister of War.

I came up with the whole dialogue while listening to music, but since I didn't write it down, I eventually forgot it and the following lines are all I remember...

CARNOT. [...] Then, I resign!

NAPOLEON. You can't resign. You are my minister: you belong to me.

CARNOT. I belong to no one but France itself, First Consul.

[mathildeaquisexta]

hey frevblr and fellow history nerds!! i’m opening commissions now :3

if you don’t know me i draw historical art but especially of the 1700s-early 1800s

three slots are open! dm me if you’re interested

(check my carrd for further details)

https://daarkentries.carrd.co/

[mathildeaquisexta]

Ma chérie and I are compiling the progress of our respective reserach on the same server, one of us is handling her thesis/research paper better than the other lmao

[mathildeaquisexta]

the thing about studying humanities is that 1. it's a constant exercise in humility because no matter what you wanna say somebody probably already said it and said it better (which is rough) and 2. you know you're never alone in whatever you're going through because no matter how you feel somebody definitely already felt the same way (which is beautiful)

[mathildeaquisexta]

10 thermidor, year ii- based on artemisia gentileschi's judith beheading holofernes.. took me 10 hours and 30 minutes SIGH

it was quite the struggle to say the least (the frev discord server knows all about that)

(detailed close-ups below)

[mathildeaquisexta]

1789 Lovers of the Bastilles (musical) Translated songs

I am currently working on a translation of the entire musical 1789 les amants de la bastilles. And in preparation I've translated the songs; so our non french frev entousiasts can discover it without wondering what it says and scramming for translations

Every song is in their own part, they include the OG French lyrics, the character singing it, and a link to the song on youtube

Yes, it's emo, Yes, Desmoulins has short hair, Yes, Marie-Antoinette has a boohoo song, Yes, it's very horny for some reasons

I'm not a professional, some of my translations can be not so good

[mathildeaquisexta]

That bitch Salicetti being FED UP with Bonbonaparte and overjoyed 9 Thermidor ended it

Source : "Chap. 5 : Le capitaine canon", Bonaparte, André Castelot

Salicetti, on whom the Army of Italy now also relies, took umbrage at the protection the Robespierre brothers granted Buonaparte. Perhaps the young general was somewhat clumsy in his dealings with his compatriot? Is it true that, as the Representative told the new Comité de Salut Public, he “barely looked at him from the height of his stature”? In any case, on August 6, Salicetti wrote to his colleague Berthier: “I learned of the death of the new tyrant and his accomplices, and I assure you that my heart expanded with pleasure. You know how despotically Ricord and Augustin Robespierre dominated the Army of Italy. How abuses reigned in finances...”

Buonaparte, “Robespierre's favourite”, was inevitably compromised. “I am convinced,” Salicetti added, “that when I arrive in Nice, I will find Ricord gone and perhaps Buonaparte too. If they are still in Nice, we have decided to have them arrested and sent to Paris immediately. There are strong grounds for suspicion, treason and squandering.” On the same August 6, representatives Albitte and Laporte, whom Salicetti had tracked down in Barcelonnette, called the young Robespierre's campaign plan - suggested by Buonaparte - “liberticide”.

“Buonaparte was their man,” they specify in their letter to the Committee, “their plan-maker whom we had to obey. A letter, anonymous but dated from Genoa, warned us that there was one million on the road to corrupt a general. Stay on your guard, we were told. Salicetti is on his way. He tells us that Buonaparte has gone to Genoa, authorized by Ricord. What was this general planning to do in a foreign country? All our suspicions are fixed on his head...” It is certain - Napoleon would later admit that his favor with the representatives on mission in place before Thermidor was high - that Augustin Robespierre hardly made any decisions concerning the Army of Italy before consulting the young general.

Without waiting for the Committee's orders, the three commissioners, “considering that General Buonaparte has totally lost their trust through the most suspicious conduct, and especially through the trip he recently made to Genoa”, decided as follows: “Brigadier General Buonaparte, commander-in-chief of the artillery of the Army of Italy, is temporarily suspended from duty. He will be arrested by and under the responsibility of the General-in-Chief of the aforementioned army, and taken to the Comité de Salut Public, in Paris, under safe escort. All papers and effects will be sealed...”.

[mathildeaquisexta]

A letter from Napoleon expressing his reaction to the events of 9 Thermidor

To Tilly, Minister of the French Republic in Genoa Nice, 20 thermidor year II [August 7, 1794]

You've learned about the conspiracy and death of Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just, etc.; he had the Jacobins, the municipality of Paris and the staff of the National Guard on his side, but after a short vacillation, the people sided with the Convention.

Barère, Carnot, Prieur, Billaud-Varennes, etc. are still part of the Comité de salut public; this brings no change to the current affairs. Ricord, having been entrusted by the Comité de salut public with the announcement of the conspiracy, has been recalled to the Convention. Saliceti is currently a representative in the Army of Italy. Our maritime operations will, I believe, be somewhat thwarted; perhaps even completely changed.

The artillery was moving forward, and the Sardinian tyrant was about to receive a great blow, but I hope it will only be delayed [...] I was a little affected by the tragedy of the younger Robespierre, whom I loved and believed to be pure, but, had he been my father, I would have stabbed him myself if he aspired to tyranny.

Source : Napoleonica, Napoléon à Tilly

[mathildeaquisexta]

In your opinion, who were the true Thermidorians who supported Robespierre’s fall, approved of it, or truly despised him

I’m sorry, but I’ll surely forget quite a few names. Moreover, it's true that from a historical standpoint, some may be considered "good." Still, here are a few figures—though some are speculative due to the lack of written evidence:

Gilbert Romme, who supported the Cult of Reason and the de-priesting of certain figures like Gobel. Although he was absent during the Thermidorian events, it’s reasonable to assume he approved of Robespierre’s fall due to their deep religious disagreements.

Abbé Grégoire, who, I believe, approved of Robespierre’s downfall even if he didn't have a role in these.

Joseph Bodson, a Hébertist, was one of the most prominent and famous left-wing opponents of Thermidorian politics. He was one of the four key figures of the Club électoral alongside Varlet, Legray, and Babeuf, opposing the rightward turn of the Convention led by men like André Dumont, Fréron, Tallien, and a bit later, Guffroy. This group could be called "neo-Hébertists," though it was quite heterogeneous—especially since Varlet came from the Enragés faction. Another nickname was “the left-wing Thermidorians.” Bodson was close to Chaumette and Hébert and never forgave Robespierre for their executions, which even led to debates with his friend Babeuf when the latter resumed admiration for Robespierre. Later, Bodson became one of the main “lieutenants” of the Babouvist conspiracy and later a famous neo-Jacobin under the Directory. Unfortunately, I don’t know what became of him under the Consulate or when he died.

The Babouvist Hébertists Clémence and Marchand.

Albertine Marat, though not involved in Thermidor, deeply disliked Robespierre and believed her brother (Jean-Paul Marat) was in no way comparable to him. She preferred Danton, although it’s quite clear she fully supported theClub électoral (which is not incompatible with her leftist political stance for example Pache—according to Pierquin—was an Hébertist who reportedly regretted for the rest of his life that he failed to reconcile the Dantonists and Hébertists). Albertine wrote a letter against Fréron, which Babeuf published in his newspaper (possibly also targeting Guffroy), and she even offered refuge to Babeuf with Simone Simone Évrard during his political break with Guffroy according to him . (For more on this, see this link).

Marie-Angélique née Lequesne, widow of Ronsin and later wife of General Turreau. According to "Mémoires, 1760–1820" by Jean-Balthazar de Bonardi du Ménil, she was imprisoned on 1 Germinal during the repression of the Hébertists but released in Brumaire Year III. She returned to ultra-revolutionary circles and married Turreau, a former associate of Ronsin in the Vendée operations. In Vendémiaire Year V, she was seen dressed as an Amazon at the head of a column of Jacobins from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, congratulating the Directory on its victory. According to Raymonde Monnier, she was a subscriber to Le Tribun du Peuple, suggesting strong ties to the Left Electoral Club. Ironically, her husband later became the adoptive father of Babeuf’s son—I wonder what role she played in that. Given her support for dechristianization and her first husband Ronsin’s execution, she likely disliked Robespierre. Still, she should be seen as a sincere revolutionary opponent. Geneanet (though to be taken cautiously because they said false things) claims she even served as a canteen woman in the french army during the Belgian campaign. Her Amazonian persona and opposition to the Directory’s right-wing policies, despite many hardships, make her seem like a female counterpart to Drouet during this period for me (though Drouet opposed Thermidor and was absent, being imprisoned by the Austrians). Later, like Drouet, she rallied to Bonaparte. She had flaws, of course, but I still include her here. I’ll write a separate post about her—there’s much to explore about her character, strengths, and weaknesses.

Cambon. Although he participated in Thermidor, he was previously one of the most progressive figures on the Committee of Finances. He pushed for policies like forced loans, effectively taxing the wealthy. He considered the Committee of Public Safety too lax and became one of Robespierre’s opponents after the latter’s speech on 8 Thermidor. He played a role in Robespierre’s fall but remained loyal to Montagnard principles. He opposed Tallien and company from the outset and, even when isolated as one of the “Crêtois,” gave a speech in support of them. He paid for his convictions with exile after the Year III uprisings to avoid arrest. It’s worth noting that some historians say he regretted Robespierre’s execution.

Pierre Antoine Antonelle, best friend of Félix Le Peletier and a former noble as committed as he was. A far-left juror on the Revolutionary Tribunal, later an important Babouvist and neo-Jacobin, he was a staunch opponent of the Directory and later of Bonaparte. I’ve written about him here: Antonelle’s political career His role as a juror Although these posts don’t cover his entire career. According to historian Pierre Serna, he strongly disliked Robespierre—and the feeling was mutual. Serna claims Robespierre was among those responsible for Antonelle’s arrest.

I’ve forgotten many more (so don't hesitate to add others people), but my aim was to show that there were numerous politically left-leaning figures—sometimes even further left than Robespierre—who either contributed to his fall, approved of it, or simply disliked him. This doesn’t mean Robespierre was bad—on the contrary. The problem is that the "black legend" surrounding him remains so strong, despite the work historians have done to rehabilitate his image, that we often focus more on refuting falsehoods about him than on understanding the sincere revolutionaries who opposed him—some of whom were even more socially radical or politically committed.

Sources:

Antoine Resche

Pierre Serna

Jean Jaurès

Dommanget

Jean-Marc Schiappa

Raymonde Monnier

Tomasso Jean-Jacques

To learn more about Drouet, whom I mentioned earlier, you can visit this link: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/789529983972507649/life-of-drouet-jean-baptiste?source=share

And for Varlet, Bodson, and Legray, check this article (although it's in French, you can translate it if needed): https://shs.cairn.info/revue-annales-historiques-de-la-revolution-francaise-2014-2-page-179?lang=fr&tab=texte-integral

[mathildeaquisexta]

My favourite Josephine costume 🌹🩷

Sorry to insist, but I just have to rant about my favourite outfit for Josephine that I've drawn

I still have to know the exact source, but many know about the alleged dress covered in rose petals. I mean she couldn't wear a more representative dress for her fancyness and love for roses.

I wanted to design it and absolutely include it in the comic. It's the very first dress she puts, because we meet her at a party flower-themed during the Thermidorian period. Best time to be fancy and extra.

It's a scene where in spite of the apparent cheerfuless, you can see the collective trauma of the Terror lurking through the cracks.

Josephine is covered in petals, as to cover up her wounds, but she's also wrapped in spines, which betray her actual state as a hurt and traumatised survivor. The ones in the neck may remind the myth of the red ribbons women tied to represent the blood from the cuts by the guillotine.

(These are two panels from the comic you already know about. The other one is Fouché for @mathildeaquisexta 's joy🩷)

This is the moodboard I created for her. It's very Alexander McQueen inspired I admit. I was in love with those rose-shaped sleeves which I could transform as a scarf. I wanted to convey the idea that Josephine was a literal rose.

Not to mention the symbolism of the rose, as both the blooming and the hurting effects of a burning passion. At Thermidor, Josephome has just been a victim of a toxic passion and is currently thinking about a new beginning for her life after the Terror. She's ready to bloom again, but is also fearful, and her thorns are now merciless.

Hope you enjoy it more! Let me hear your thoughts 🌹🩷

[mathildeaquisexta]

Ça t'a fait mal ? (quand tu es tombée du ciel)

Pas du tout, parce que je savais que tu étais là pour me prendre dans tes bras🌹❤️

[mathildeaquisexta]

"The (Sur)name and Given Names of Saint-Just and Their Modifications" by Maurice Dommanget - English Translation

Dommanget Maurice. Du nom et des prénoms de Saint-Just et de leurs modifications. In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française, n°173, 1963. 250e anniversaire de la naissance de Diderot (1713-1784) pp. 331-336

I discovered this article while reading Monar's Saint-Just bio, which hit me with the revelation that Saint-Just likely went by "Léon" rather than "Antoine" in his private life. I translated the article to the best of my abilities to get a deeper idea of wtf was going on with Saint-Just's many names, and thought I'd share with everyone else too.

tl;dr He went by Léon with family, Léonard / Florelle in some writings and pre-Convention political meetings, St. Juste on CPS documents when he wanted to be really dramatic (in French his name isn't really so on-the-nose unless you add the e)

(However, the article doesn't get into how he's listed as "Antoine Saint-Just" on the execution records?)

The paternal ancestry of Saint-Just, as far back as can be precisely traced (prior to the last quarter of the 17th century), originates in Chelles, Picardy—a village near Pierrefonds on the current border of the Oise and Aisne departments. The family later settled in Attichy, Nampcel, Morsain, and Blérancourt, on the borders of the same departments (1). 

Notably, the name "Saint-Just" also designates three localities in the modern Oise department: Saint-Just-des-Marais, incorporated today into Beauvais; Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, a canton capital between Clermont and Breteuil; Saint-Just, a château and hamlet in the commune of Belle-Église, near Bornel (2). Additionally, a fountain near Laon in the Aisne department has borne the name "Saint-Just" since at least 1265 (3).

Across France, numerous communes, hamlets, and settlements are named Saint-Just. The nomenclature of communes lists 10 "Saint-Just" without a particular name and 20 with specific names (4). We note around thirty by consulting the nomenclature of the offices of post, telegraph and telephone systems before the war of 1914-1918. Among these Saint-Justs, some do not correspond with a Saint-Just designating a commune name. By estimating around thirty places bearing the name Saint-Just, we are therefore committing an underestimation compared to reality. This is evident, for example, from the fact that the grandmother of the grandiose 1848 revolutionary Ernest Cœurderoy (1825–1862) came from a Saint-Just hamlet near Moutiers-Saint-Jean (Côte-d’Or) (5), a hamlet which does not appear in the names indicated above.

To the extent that the names of places often derive from the names of people, or vice versa, we can be certain that there have existed and still exist Saint-Just families of origins other than the family of the conventionnel. Among his known contemporaries, do we not count the poet Mérard de Saint-Just, born in Paris; the magistrate and constituent Fréteau de Saint-Just, born in Melun; and the writer Godard d'Aucour de Saint-Just, born in Paris, who published all his works under the name of Saint-Just?

Around the mid-19th century, living in La Moulinière, a commune of Villers-Saint-Paul (Oise), was a Madame Martel née Saint-Just (6). One is led to believe that she too did not belong to the Convention member 's own family if one studies the latter 's genealogy closely.

***

Before the Revolution, there is no doubt that the name of Saint-Just's ancestors was always preceded by the particle. However, the father of the conventionnel, registered at birth (1715) as the son of Charles de Saint-Just, married (1765) under the name “de Saint-Just de Richebourg,” and is recorded upon his death (1777) under the name of “Louis Jean Saint-Just de Richebourg.” His wife, son, and daughters appear in parish registers mostly with the particle. The conventionnel’s mother, commonly called Madame de Saint-Just, was nevertheless listed upon her death (1811) as “the widow of Louis Saint-Just” (7).

At his birth on August 25, 1767, Saint-Just was given the first names Louis Antoine.  These appear on his baptismal certificate in the Decize Municipal Archives and correspond to legal first names at the time.

L’Organt appeared in 1789 without an author’s name. It gives us no information on Saint-Just’s first names. Both for the printing of the work and to escape the prosecution it aroused upon its publication, Saint-Just stayed in Paris for at least two months, calling himself Léonard Florelle de Saint-Just.

Why Léonard? This saint is the patron of prisoners. Is it to recall, by protest and in a sort of defiance, the painful time when he was locked up in Paris in 1786? There is hardly any other explanation. (Xiran Note: Actually, it's probably derived from the name of his maternal grandfather Léonard Robinot). Why Florelle? This first name, or rather literary pseudonym, has poetic flair. It corresponds to the cheerful period when the "Chevalier Organt" played the dandy in the capital, completing his teasing of the Muses and launching his tragicomic poem. There is a striking contrast between the two names. But should we simply see the name “Florelle,” as noted by Mme M.-A. Charmelot (8), as the Greek translation of Antoine, Saint-Just’s usual given name? This explanation is plausible.

At the electoral assembly of Chauny (17-26 May 1790), Saint-Just, yielding to the wishes of the delegates, placed in the hands of the president, to be attached to the minutes, his speech in favor of the choice of Soissons as capital of the department of Aisne. He signed this document "Florelle de Saint-Just, elector of Blérancourt." The photograph of this signature with the five and a half lines preceding it is preserved in the Departmental Archives of Aisne and appears in the classic work of René Hennequin (9). But on the following 3 June, in his letter to Camille Desmoulins giving a precise account of the assembly of Chauny, Saint-Just simply signed "Saint-Just" (10). He signed the same in his famous letter to Robespierre on 19 August 1790 (11). In the meantime, the register of deliberations of the General Council of the commune of Blérancourt still referred to him as “M. de Saint-Just” on the dates of June 24 and July 2, 1790 (12).

In June 1791, Saint-Just published L’Esprit de la Révolution et de la Constitution de la France in Paris. This book bears “Louis-Léon de Saint-Just” as the author's name. This same name appears in the edition of his Discours sur la proposition d’entourer la Convention nationale d’une garde-armée (Discourse on the Proposal to Surround the National Convention with an Armed Guard), delivered at the Jacobins on October 22, 1792. Thus, Saint-Just reinstated the particle in his name while removing his regular middle name of Antoine for the public. He therefore abandoned the names of Léonard and Florelle that he had given himself.

Why substitute Léon for Antoine? Ernest Hamel, from a family allied to that of Saint-Just and who has, in a way, collected the family tradition, provides the following explanation: this first name of Antoine having seemed a little common and inharmonious in the family, he was given that of Léon; it was therefore quite natural that he signed his works with the first name by which he was known. (13)

There is no reason to doubt the validity of this explanation. Saint-Just certainly took up the name consecrated by usage. But from now on, thanks to a notoriety acquired precisely at the Jacobin session of October 22, 1792, the young conventionnel would sign and call himself simply Saint-Just.

***

It’s the Journal des Jacobins, reporting the October 22, 1792, speech, that established and in some way accredited in the public the short and simple name of "Saint-Just." Though it credited it with a mistake, printing the name as “Sinjeu.”  As Aulard notes: "This seems to indicate that contemporaries did not pronounce the last two letters” (14). It also seems to indicate, we will say, a writer of Picard origin; because, in the dialect of Picardy, u's are transformed into eu's. The error is corrected in the issue of the same sheet which reports the session of November 4, 1792, marked by a new intervention by Saint-Just. His name, amputated of the particle, is reported this time very accurately (15).

But it must be believed that the name of “Saint-Just” had not permeated public consciousness as one might suppose. Indeed, Prudhomme's journal, in its article on the first discussion in the Convention concerning the trial of the king, on the following 13 November, gives the intervention of Saint-Just and violently criticizes it. It reports it as being that of “Méard de Saint-Just,” repeated four times, ruling out a typo.

One wonders if the anonymous writer sought to discredit the conventionnel by conflating him, by virtue of a near homonymy, with the licentious poet Mérard de Saint-Just. It is true that in the same issue, in the usual place devoted to summary reports of the debates of the Convention, the intervention of the deputy of Aisne on November 13 is indeed recorded as “Saint-Just” (17). It is under this name that the intervention of the young member of the Convention will be reported in the subsequent issue on December 27 (18), and thereafter he will not be referred to otherwise.

The dropping of the particle had become a practice of the time. While not common, it was not rare. It successively entered the framework of de-aristocratization and dechristianization. It should be noted, however, that Saint-Just stopped at the elimination of the particle. He did not push the mutation like his fellow Picard Saint-Simon who, as early as September 20, 1790, before the General Council of Péronne, had renounced his proscribed name to call himself “Bonhomme,” in the plebeian manner (19). However, it is not by chance that in the year II Saint-Just modified his name by signing Saint-Juste on the decrees of the Committee of Public Safety (20). It was undoubtedly to better mark his concern for justice on the basis of his name. By the roundabout way of adding a final letter to his name, Saint-Just thus comes closer to all those who at the time changed their name by giving it a moral or civic meaning.

But if the suppression of the particle can be seen in Saint-Just as a democratic pledge, his changes or modifications of his given names do not present themselves in the same light. They preceded year II, and even before the first revolutionary names given to newborns, if we accept with Mathiez, that they date from the Fête de la Fédération. It must therefore be noted that Saint-Just’s given name modifications have no civic character. Moreover, in the midst of dechristianization, in his report to the Convention of 23 Ventôse Year II (Xiran Note: March 13, 1794), Saint-Just condemned the “hypocrites in patriotism” who changed their surnames and given names.

He found it a proud pretension "to usurp the names of the great men of antiquity" and declared that "an honest man who advances among the people, with the boldness and tranquil air of probity, has only one name as he has only one heart" (21). This was a sort of disavowal of his brother-in-law Decaisne, who gave the name Brutus to one of his sons, born in Blérancourt on 1 Brumaire of Year II (October 22, 1793). This was also one of the aspects of Saint-Just 's brake on dechristianization, a brake of a political nature, certainly, but which is linked to his philosophical ideas of which a serious analysis remains to be made.

[mathildeaquisexta]

Léon Étienne Tournes - Intimité (1901)