Thomas Okey · Public domain edition · 133 cards · 35 chapters
Thomas Okey’s The Story of Paris argues that the city’s history and monuments reflect a distinctive civic culture rather than a single ruling dynasty. The deck covers his guidebook aims, sources, practical traveler advice, 1911 preface updates, population figures, and comparisons with London and Italian city-states.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What limits does Okey acknowledge for a book about Paris's monuments?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The author argues that compression and selection were imperative given the vast range of study, and that in a city of constant change and active housebreaking, any work on past monuments must soon become imperfect. He notes the old houses in the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, including the traditional lodging of Dumas' d'Artagnan, were swept away for engineering works.
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Introduction3 cards
What limits does Okey acknowledge for a book about Paris's monuments?
The author argues that compression and selection were imperative given the vast range of study, and that in a city of constant change and active housebreaking, any work on past monuments must soon become imperfect. He notes the old houses in the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, including the traditional lodging of Dumas' d'Artagnan, were swept away for engineering works.
Chapter 1
How does Okey describe the purpose and hoped usefulness of his guidebook?
He states his constant desire was to render the work useful to the inexperienced visitor to Paris, admitting success in so complicated a task can be but partial. Quoting Sir Thomas Browne, he says wills must be performances and intents make out actions, otherwise pious labours find anxiety in graves and best endeavours hope only fear of resurrection.
Chapter 1
What sources does Okey list for the general history of France?
He cites Lavisse's Histoire de France, Michelet's Histoire de France and other works, Duruy's Histoire de France, Zeller's seventeen-volume Histoire de France racontee par les Contemporains, Faulmann on printing, chronicles by Gregory of Tours, Joinville, Froissart and others, Guerard's Geographie Historique, Froude's essay on the Templars, and Murray's Jeanne d'Arc.
Chapter 1
L. Lalanne; _Paris Pendant la Domination Anglaise_, by A…3 cards
What practical advice does the author give travelers about meals in Paris?
The author advises that because distances in Paris are great, a traveler who wants to economize time and reduce fatigue should arrange with his host to be free to take the mid-day meal wherever his journeyings may lead him, rather than returning to a fixed spot.
Chapter 2
What does the 1911 preface report about the demolition of Old Paris?
The preface to the second edition states that demolition of Old Paris proceeded apace after the 1906 publication. It names losses including the Tower of Dagobert, the old Academy of Medicine, the Annexe of the Hotel Dieu, the Rue du Petit Pont, and the Hotel of the Provost of Paris, and notes the vaulted entrance to the old charnel houses of St Paul was being swept away as the author wrote.
Chapter 2
What does the author regret about the Louvre catalogue in the 1911 preface?
The author notes that Part II of the work was brought up to date and changes in the Louvre recorded, but regrets that the new edition of the official Catalogue of the Foreign Schools of Painting, promised by the authorities in 1909, had not yet appeared when the preface was written in May 1911.
Chapter 2
SECTION X4 cards
According to Okey, how does Paris's history differ from that of an Italian city-state?
The author argues Paris differs from an Italian city-state whose rise, culmination and fall can be traced, because Paris is still in a stage of lusty growth. Repeatedly it has burst its walls and renewed itself, showing no grass-grown squares, ruined splendours, or solemn pathos of decay and death, but rather marvellous recuperation after trials.
Chapter 3
What population growth does the chapter cite for Paris between 1870 and 1901?
The chapter states that since 1871, when the city seemed doomed after foreign invasion and internecine war, prosperity increased so that house rent doubled and population rose from 1,825,274 in 1870 to 2,714,068 in 1901.
Chapter 3
How does Okey contrast Parisian and London audiences at the theatre?
The author argues it is impossible to conceive a London theatre pit stirred to fury by an innovation in diction in a poetical drama, or anything comparable to a Parisian popular audience attentively listening to severe classic tragedies and well-worn comedies with little stage upholstery, responsive to rhythm, phrasing, pathos and subtle comedy.
Chapter 3
What does Okey say about Parisian citizenship and civic consciousness compared with London?
The author argues Paris, unlike London, has never expanded to the effacement of its distinctive features and loss of civic consciousness. The city still has a definite outline and circumference, gates reading Entree de Paris, and the Parisian is and always has been conscious of his citizenship, proud of his city, careful of her beauty and jealous of her reputation.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER I4 cards
Why was the Parisian settlement well placed for commerce and defense?
The Parisii occupied the largest island in the Seine, protected by a natural moat of deep water, with hills, marshes and forests to north and south. The site lay in the fertile Isle de France basin near the Marne, Oise and Yonne, on a trade route between Marseilles and Britain, and near the cornland of La Beauce.
Chapter 4
How did Labienus take Lutetia in 52 B.C.?
Caesar sent Labienus to seize Lutetia, where the northern Gaulish army was centred. Labienus crossed the Seine at Melun and camped near St. Germain l'Auxerrois. The Gauls burned the bridges and city and took the hill of Lutetius. Labienus recrossed the Seine by night at the Point du Jour and defeated them on the plain of Grenelle.
Chapter 4
What did the Roman conquest bring to Lutetia?
With the Romans came the Roman peace, Roman law, roads and schools, and a more humane religion that abolished Druidical sacrifices. Lutetia was rebuilt and became, next to Lyons, the most important Gallo-Roman city, equidistant from Germany and Britain and at the issue of valleys leading to the upper and lower Rhine.
Chapter 4
What did the Nautae altar reveal about Paris's origins?
Workmen in 1711 found a Gallo-Roman wall under Notre Dame containing remains of a temple of Jupiter, including an altar to Jove raised in Tiberius's reign by the Nautae, a guild of Parisian merchant-shippers. The author argues this corporation was the origin of the Commune of Paris, whose Provost was called Prevot des Marchands d'Eau.
Chapter 4
CHAPTER II3 cards
According to Okey, what mainly hastened the fall of the Roman Empire?
The author argues it was less a corruption of morals than growing slackness and apathy in public life and intellectual sloth. The economic base crumbled as the supply of slaves was gradually exhausted, and the ruling class was content to administer and enjoy rather than govern, unwilling or unable to grapple with the new order of things.
Chapter 5
How did St. Genevieve reportedly save Paris during the Frankish siege?
When the people were wasted by sickness and famine, the holy virgin went to the Seine and fetched supplies by ship. By her prayers she stilled a furious tempest and brought the ships back laden with wheat. After the city was captured, King Childeric, though a pagan, saved his prisoners' lives at her intercession and once fled the gates to escape her pleas for criminals.
Chapter 5
What was the 'capital fact' of early French history, and how did it happen?
The conversion of Clovis. Clotilde had long urged him to become Christian; a firstborn son died within a week, but a second recovered at her prayers. In 496, at Tolbiac, Clovis invoked the God of the Christians when the fight went against him, was delivered, and victory followed. Okey notes his Christianity showed few signs of grace, and the Franks saw Jesus as a more puissant tribal deity.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER III3 cards
How did Pepin the Short become king in 751?
Pepin sent two prelates to sound Pope Zacchary, who, hard pressed by the Lombards, agreed that he who was king in fact should be king in name. Pepin assumed the royal title, Chilperic III was relegated to a monastery at St. Omer, and Pepin was anointed at Soissons by St. Boniface. In 754 Pope Stephen III re-anointed Pepin and his sons Charles and Carloman at St. Denis.
Chapter 6
What happened to Paris in the Norman raid of 845?
A fleet of one hundred and twenty vessels swept up the Seine and on Easter Eve captured, plundered and burnt Paris, sacking its monasteries and churches and butchering their monks and priests. Emperor Charles the Bald bought the raiders off at St. Denis with seven thousand livres of silver, and they returned home gorged with plunder, only to come back year by year in greater numbers.
Chapter 6
How was the dispute between Abbot Fulrad and the bishop of Paris decided?
The author describes a judgment by the cross: two champions met before the Count of Paris in the king's chapel of St. Nicholas in the Palace of the Cite. While the royal chaplain recited psalms and prayers, they held their arms outstretched in the form of a cross. The bishop's deputy succumbed first, his fainting arms drooped, and the abbot won his cause.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER IV4 cards
What did the Capetians' royal emblem change from, and what did it become?
The globe of the earth, symbol of universal empire, gave way to the hand of justice as the emblem of kingship. The author argues the Capets were at first little more than seigneurs over other seigneurs, but the holy chrism of consecration and support of French jurists promised future grandeur.
Chapter 7
What happened across Christendom after the feared year 1000 passed?
A supposed apocalyptic prophecy had paralysed political and social life, and churches overflowed with penitents whose donations enriched them. Once the March equinox of the year 1000 passed and the sun rose unconsumed, the old world seemed to thrill with new life, and men strove to build finer temples to God, replacing wooden roofs with stone.
Chapter 7
Why was King Robert the Pious forced to repudiate Queen Bertha?
Robert had married Bertha, a cousin of the fourth degree, a year before his accession. The pope condemned the union as incestuous and summoned him to repudiate her. Robert resisted, but excommunication and interdict followed; everyone fled from him, and the misery of his people at length subdued his spirit, so he cast off his beloved queen.
Chapter 7
How did the Church at Paris use serfs in legal matters?
The Church sent serfs to law courts to give evidence for their bishop or prior, or to fight judicial duels for them. In the eleventh century freemen rebelled against fighting a despised serf and refused the duel; early in the next century the king and court decided serfs might lawfully testify and fight freemen, and whoever refused trial by battle lost the suit and suffered excommunication.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER V4 cards
What two vast undertakings made Philip Augustus memorable in Paris?
The chapter names two: the beginning of the paving of the city, ordered after foul-smelling carts beneath the king's window sickened him, and the building of the girdle of walls and towers. The paving was not completed until the reign of Charles V., a century and a half later; the wall was twenty years building and finished in 1211.
Chapter 8
What did Philip Augustus do at les Halles regarding heretics?
Philip erected two great warehouses at the old market at Champeaux (1181-1183), one for drapers and one for weavers, known as les Halles. There too he caused the first heretics executed at Paris to be burnt at the stake, sparing the women and simple folk misled by the chief sectaries; one dead sectary was excommunicated, exhumed, and flung on a dungheap.
Chapter 8
How did St. Louis describe his conception of royal office?
The chapter sums up the king's conception of his office in two words, Gouverner bien. He told his heir Louis he would rather a Scotchman came from Scotland and ruled the kingdom well and loyally than that his son should govern it ill, and urged him to win the affection of his people.
Chapter 8
How did St. Louis administer justice to his poorer people?
Joinville relates that after mass at Vincennes the king walked in the woods, then sat at the foot of an old oak and heard his poorer people's plaints without let of usher or official, administering justice. In his palace garden in the Cite, when the poor crowded round all speaking at once, he cried 'Silence! one at a time,' had a carpet spread, and judged them with his councillors.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER VI4 cards
Why did Abbot Suger rebuild St. Denis in the early twelfth century?
The church of St. Denis urgently needed extension because on festival days crowds pressing to view the relics were so great that many people had been trodden under foot. Abbot Suger therefore determined to build a larger and nobler church. The people showed great enthusiasm, with noble and burgess, freeman and serf hauling stone from the quarry themselves.
Chapter 9
Who initiated the building of the new Notre Dame, and what were its main construction stages?
Maurice de Sully, a peasant's son who became bishop of Paris, determined in 1161 to erect a great minster. Old churches and houses were demolished and a new street made. Two years were spent digging foundations; in 1163 Pope Alexander III is said to have laid the first stone; in 1182 the high altar was consecrated; by Sully's death in 1196 the nave walls were erect and partly roofed; the transepts and nave were completed in 1235.
Chapter 9
What does the chapter say about the anonymity of thirteenth-century Gothic masterpieces?
The chapter states that of the names of those who created these wonderful productions few are known, and the great masterpieces of the thirteenth century are mostly anonymous. Jean de Chelles, one of the masons of Notre Dame, left his name and the date Feb. 12, 1257, on the south portal. Pierre de Montereau is named in a deed of 1265, but the attribution of the Sainte Chapelle to him is a mere guess.
Chapter 9
How does the chapter describe the medieval use of the word 'art'?
The chapter argues that the word art, as denoting a product of human activity different from ordinary daily tasks, was unknown in those times. Painting was an art, but so was carpentry; a mason was an artist, so was a shoemaker; astronomy and grammar were arts, so was spinning. Dante uses artista to mean a workman or craftsman.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER VII4 cards
Why did Philip the Fair summon the States-General in 1302?
Philip summoned the States-General to rally popular support in his struggle with Pope Boniface VIII over secular supremacy. The assembly met at Notre Dame on 10 April 1302, after a papal bull was burned in Paris on 11 February. For the first time, members of the Tiers Etat sat beside clergy and nobles, and the members swore to risk lives and property rather than surrender the crown's honour and their liberties to Rome.
Chapter 10
What happened to Boniface VIII at Anagni in September 1303?
On 7 September 1303, Guillaume de Nogaret, bearing the royal banner of France, with Sciarra Colonna and three hundred horsemen, seized the aged pope at Anagni. The cardinals fled, but Boniface robed himself in the papal mantle and crown and waited on his throne; the intruders were awed and dared not harm him. He was held three days until the townspeople rescued him. He died at Rome a month later, of a broken heart.
Chapter 10
What was the origin of the Knights-Templars?
In 1118 two young French nobles, Hugh of Payens and Godfrey of St. Omer, with seven other youths of high birth, formed a lay community to protect pilgrims travelling from the coast to Jerusalem against Bedouin raiders. They took vows of poverty, charity and obedience; St. Bernard drew up their Rule, and pope and patriarch confirmed it. Their white mantle bore a red cross, and they were housed near Solomon's Temple.
Chapter 10
How were the Templars destroyed under Philip the Fair?
Renegade Templars under sentence at Toulouse offered information on alleged crimes in the order. Pope Clement V, Philip's creature, summoned Jacques de Molay to France, then on 13 October 1307 all Templars in France were arrested in their beds. Starvation and torture produced confessions; thirty-six died under the rack in Paris. When prisoners retracted, the archbishop of Sens condemned fifty-four to be slowly roasted outside the Porte St. Antoine on 12 May.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER VIII4 cards
Who was Etienne Marcel and what office did he hold in Paris?
Etienne Marcel was a rich merchant prince of an old family and a member of the great drapers' guild, elected Provost of the Marchands d'Eau in 1355. He bought the Maison des Dauphins, known as the Maison aux Piliers or Hotel de Ville, for 2400 gold florins and moved the civic administration there from the Parloir aux Bourgeois. He became virtually dictator of Paris during the Dauphin's conflict with the city.
Chapter 11
How did Etienne Marcel die according to the chapter?
Froissart accuses Marcel of plotting to open the gates of St. Honore and St. Antoine to Charles of Navarre's English mercenaries at midnight on 31 July. The Chronicle of St. Denis adds that Jean Maillart, won over by the Dauphin, confronted Marcel at the bastille of St. Antoine, denounced him as a traitor, and felled him with an axe blow. The Dauphin then entered Paris in triumph and the popular leaders were executed.
Chapter 11
What did Charles V do with the Louvre and the Hotel St. Paul?
Charles V handed the Louvre, now inside the new wall and no longer defensive, to his mason Raymond of the Temple to convert into a sumptuous palace with chapels, sculpture, paintings, a minstrel gallery, and a garden with a lion house and tennis court. He also surrendered the Cite palace to the Parlement and built the Hotel St. Paul, a royal city within a city with gardens and menageries, of which only street names remain.
Chapter 11
What was the Jacquerie and how does the chapter characterize it?
The Jacquerie was the peasant insurrection during the anarchy of the Dauphin's struggle with Marcel, named from the lords' nickname 'Jacques Bonhomme' for peasants. The chapter argues Froissart, relying on distorted seigneurial stories, greatly exaggerated its atrocities: there was arson and pillage but barely thirty nobles are known to have died, while the nobles' merciless vengeance killed the outmanoeuvred peasants like rats.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER IX4 cards
How did Parisians initially react to the Treaty of Troyes and English rule?
The chapter states that despite the occupation being Paris's darkest hour, the Treaty of Troyes was hailed with joy; crowds cried "Noel, noel!" as the two kings rode to Notre Dame. The university, parlement, queen-mother, and most of North France accepted the settlement. Yet the author notes the English later failed to win Parisian affection, and hatred of the English name grew.
Chapter 12
What happened to Jeanne d'Arc at the assault on Paris in September 1429?
Jeanne occupied St. Denis on 23 August and said her voices told her to remain there, but the lords made her attack Paris. On 8 September the assault failed due to the king's apathy, jealous counsellors, and Burgundy's double-dealing. That afternoon Jeanne was wounded by an arrow in the thigh while sounding the fosse with her lance, and was carried back to St. Denis, where she hung up her arms.
Chapter 12
What evidence does the chapter give of economic decline in Paris under English rule?
The author calls the period melancholy: commerce slumped and property values fell. Notre Dame's chapter had to sell gold treasury vessels, hundreds of houses were abandoned by owners unable to meet charges, and in 1427 the rent of the Maison des Singes was cut from twenty-six livres to fourteen, citing "the extreme diminution of rents." The author also notes riotous conduct by some English garrison members.
Chapter 12
How did the English occupation of Paris end in 1446?
The chapter describes growing unrest, illustrated by a goldsmith and shoemaker whose loose talk of wanting a French king led to trouble. On 13 April 1446 citizens opened the Porte St. Jacques to the Duke of Richemont, Constable of France, who entered with 2000 knights to cries of "Ville gagnee!" The English garrison under Lord Willoughby held the Bastille St. Antoine but capitulated after two days and embarked for Rouen amid public execrations.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER X3 cards
Why were Fust and Schoeffer driven out of Paris in 1463?
The powerful corporation of scribes and booksellers, who held a Sorbonne-granted monopoly on book sales in Paris, were jealous of the new art. Their opposition led to the confiscation of the printed books Fust and Schoeffer had brought, and the partners were expelled from the city. In 1474 Louis XI paid Schoeffer an indemnity of 2500 crowns for the confiscation and his trouble in introducing printing to the capital.
Chapter 13
How did Louis XI win over the hostile Parisians in 1465?
Facing the League of the Public Good, Louis used insinuating speech and gestures: he supped with the provost, sheriffs and their wives at the Hotel de Ville, and formed a council of six burgesses, six Parlement members and six from the university. He then armed Paris, levying every able male aged sixteen to sixty; 60,000 to 80,000 men with sixty-seven trade banners were reviewed before the king and queen, checkmating the nobles.
Chapter 13
What happened to printing in Paris under later royal and university restrictions?
Despite royal favour, printing remained a poor career: Henry Estienne died in poverty at a Lyons hospital and the last Robert Estienne at the Hotel Dieu in Paris. In 1534 all presses were ordered closed amid university reaction against Lutherans and printers; in 1537 no book could be printed without Sorbonne permission; in 1556 a vellum copy of every royally privileged book was to be deposited in the royal library.
Chapter 13
CHAPTER XI4 cards
What new developments signaled the end of the medieval epoch in Paris?
The chapter cites the advent of the printing-press and the opening of a Greek lectureship at the Sorbonne by Gregory Tyhernas and Hermonymus of Sparta as signs that an epoch was ending. With the accession of Charles VIII and the Italian wars, a new era began; Gothic architecture reached its final flamboyant development, and painting and sculpture assumed new aspects.
Chapter 14
How does the chapter describe the layout of fifteenth-century Paris?
The author describes a triple city: the legal and ecclesiastical Cite on the island, linked by five house-covered bridges; the university district on the south bank with its fifty colleges clustering about Mount St. Genevieve; and the commercial Ville on the north bank with forty-four churches, enclosed by Charles V's walls and defended by the Bastille and the Louvre.
Chapter 14
What did Charles VIII bring back from Italy, and who rebuilt Parisian structures?
Returning from his Naples expedition, Charles VIII brought a collection of pictures, tapestry, and marble and porphyry sculptures weighing thirty-five tons. He and his successors employed Italian builders Domenico da Cortona and Fra Giocondo; the latter supervised rebuilding of the Petit Pont and headed the commission that replaced the collapsed wooden Pont Notre Dame with a stone bridge completed in 1507.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about French resistance to Italian architecture?
The author argues Italian architecture was late in making itself felt in Paris, where native art made stubborn resistance. The old French tradition stamped its impress on Italian Renaissance architecture and adapted it to French life and climate. The Hotel de Cluny (finished 1490) exemplifies native domestic architecture modified by the new style, and Gothic building continued: St. Merri was begun in 1520.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER XII4 cards
What advice did the dying Francis give his son regarding the Guises and Montmorency?
The dying Francis counseled his son to "beware of Montmorency and curb the power of the Guises." Henry II, described as dull and heavy-witted, neglected this advice, and the Guises flourished in royal favour. Claude, a poor cadet of Rene II, Duke of Lorraine, founded the house; his son Francis rose through military genius and statesmanship, and Charles became Cardinal of Lorraine.
Chapter 15
How did Henry II die in 1559, and what happened to Montgomery later?
During a tournament in the Rue St. Antoine celebrating the peace with Spain and double marriages, Henry insisted on challenging Count Montgomery de Lorge despite the captain's request to be excused. A broken truncheon struck the royal visor, lifted it, and penetrated the king's eye; Henry died after eleven days of agony. Fifteen years later Montgomery, captured fighting with the Huguenots, was beheaded on the Place de Greve while Catherine de' Medici watched.
Chapter 15
What architectural works did Lescot and Goujon complete under Henry II?
Henry saw Lescot's design for the west wing of the Louvre completed, with Jean Goujon executing low-relief figures and the Caryatides supporting the musicians' gallery in the Salle des Caryatides. The agreement of 5 September 1550 awarded forty-six livres each for four plaster models and eighty crowns each for four carved figures. Lescot preserved the old chateau's external wall as the kernel of his new wing. The two also worked on the Fontaine des Innocents.
Chapter 15
What events surrounded the marriage of Marguerite of France and Henry of Navarre in 1572?
The betrothal took place in the Louvre, and on Sunday 17 August 1572 a high dais was erected outside Notre Dame for the marriage, performed by the Cardinal de Bourbon. Henry walked in the bishop's garden while mass was sung. Three days of balls, masquerades and tourneys followed amid a sullen populace—the noces vermeilles. Jeanne of Navarre had died soon after arriving at court, with Huguenots suspecting poison.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER XIII4 cards
Why did the Catholic party fear the succession after the Duke of Alencon died in 1582?
With Catherine's last surviving son dead, Henry III gave no hope of an heir, so the Catholic party faced the prospect of the crown of St. Louis passing to a relapsed heretic. This fear produced a great wave of feeling across France and led to the formation of a Holy League with the Duke of Guise as its leader.
Chapter 16
What happened in Paris on the night of 11 May when royal troops entered?
Royal Guards and 4,000 Swiss mercenaries entered Paris, but the sixteen sections of the communal government met, the people took up arms, and barricades and chains blocked the streets. The St. Antoine section defeated the king's Guards and Swiss and threatened the Louvre, forcing Henry to send his mother to treat; she returned with terms amounting to virtual abdication, and Henry fled.
Chapter 16
How did Henry III die and who did he name as successor?
Jacques Clement, a young Dominican friar who prepared himself by fasting, prayer and communion, left Paris with a forged letter, gained a private interview at St. Cloud, and mortally stabbed the king with a knife from his sleeve. Henry lingered until 2 August, named Henry of Navarre his lawful successor, and had his Council swear allegiance to the new dynasty.
Chapter 16
Why did Henry of Navarre abjure Protestantism in 1593?
The author argues Henry knew the supreme moment had come: France was still profoundly Catholic, so he had to choose between his religion and France. He chose to heal his country's wounds and perhaps save her existence, professing himself convinced on 23 July 1593, though his letter to Gabrielle d'Estrees shows his mind on other matters.
Chapter 16
XIII.4 cards
Why did Sully leave office and who replaced him?
The chapter states that Marie de' Medici was at first content to let Sully hold office, but favouritism and the greed of princes drove him from Paris in the prime of life into retirement at his chateau of Villebon. His place was taken by Concini, described as a feeble and venal Florentine who had come to Paris in Marie's time.
Chapter 17
What happened at the States-General of 1614?
Called to the Salle Bourbon amid a critical financial situation, the States-General achieved little. Nobles and the Tiers Etat traded recriminations; one Tiers member was thrashed by a noble with no redress, and the clergy refused to bear public burdens. Each order wrangled for its own privileges, and the meeting-place was closed on the pretext it was needed for a royal ballet. The States-General did not meet again until 1789.
Chapter 17
How did Richelieu handle the defiant duellists?
The Count of Bouteville, the most notorious duellist of his time, and the Count of Les Chapelles were sent to the scaffold for fighting duels in the Place Royale in open noonday, at which the Marquis of Buffy was killed. Despite pressure from the Condes, Orleans, Montmorencys and other powerful nobles, Richelieu was firm, telling Louis it was infamous to punish only the weak.
Chapter 17
What did Richelieu achieve for France, and how did he die?
The chapter credits Richelieu with crushing the Huguenots as a political party by capturing La Rochelle, humbling the nobles, crushing the Parlement, maintaining seven armies and two navies, and adding four provinces: Alsace, Lorraine, Artois and Rousillon. When dying in 1642, asked if he pardoned his enemies, he replied he had none save those of the state.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER XV4 cards
Who did Mazarin leave to Louis XIV, and what did Colbert accomplish?
On his deathbed Mazarin told the king he owed everything to him but could partly repay by leaving him Colbert. The author credits Colbert with bearing the burden of five ministries, creating order from financial chaos, funding armies of 300,000 before Ryswick and 450,000 for the Spanish succession war, nurturing French industries, and building a navy that terrorized English commerce.
Chapter 18
Why did Louis XIV hate Paris and choose Versailles?
The author states Louis hated Paris because his forced exile and the humiliations of the Fronde rankled in his memory, and St. Germain held unpleasant associations. A lover of the chase, he was drawn to his father's hunting lodge at Versailles, away from prying Parisian eyes and tongues, where he met Madame de la Valliere; there he resolved to build a vast pleasure-palace and gardens.
Chapter 18
What did the revocation of the Edict of Nantes do, and who urged it?
Madame de Maintenon, a narrow bigot under fanatic influence, persuaded Louis that a crusade against heresy would atone for his sins. By revoking the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685, the charter of Protestant liberties was destroyed; whole cities were depopulated and tens of thousands of law-abiding Huguenots expatriated, carrying their industries abroad. The author notes Paris largely approved, but the consequences were disastrous.
Chapter 18
What was the human cost of the Eure diversion scheme for Versailles' water?
Because reservoirs fed by hydraulic machinery at Marly were deemed inadequate, orders were given to divert the river Eure between Chartres and Maintenon. For years an army of thirty thousand men labored on this single task at a cost of money and life greater than many a campaign. Mortality was so heavy that speaking of the sick or dead was forbidden; bodies were carted away at night. Only a few ruins at Maintenon remain.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVI4 cards
What did John Law persuade the regent his paper-money system would accomplish?
Law persuaded the regent that a liberal issue of paper money could wipe out the national deficit of 100,000,000 livres, revive trade and industry, and inaugurate a financial millennium. His Bank became the Banque Royale in 1718, and the Mississippi Company shares were inflated to twenty times their nominal value before the collapse at the end of 1719 ruined thousands of families.
Chapter 19
What did Marshal Villeroi tell the eleven-year-old Louis XV at the Tuileries window?
Showing the boy the exultant crowds crying 'Vive le roi!', Villeroi exclaimed: 'Sire, all this people is yours; all belongs to you. Show yourself to them, and satisfy them; you are the master of all.' The scene instilled a perilous lesson of absolute ownership into the young king's mind.
Chapter 19
How did Parisians respond to Louis XV's illness at Metz in 1744?
As the king hovered near death, churches were thronged with sobbing people praying for recovery; when news came that he was out of danger, courtiers were borne shoulder-high through the streets and thanksgiving followed in all the churches. People hailed him Louis le Bien-Aime, and the king, pierced by their loyalty, cried, 'What have I done to deserve such love?'
Chapter 19
What did Louis XV reply when warned of dangers menacing the crown?
Malesherbes and others warned the king of the dangers menacing the crown, but so sunk was he in sensual stupefaction that he only murmured, 'Well, it will last my time,' and with his flatterers uttered the famous words 'Apres nous le deluge.' The author argues this indifference let the old monarchy drift toward the coming Revolution.
Chapter 19
CHAPTER XVII4 cards
What social and economic conditions in France does the chapter cite before the Revolution?
The chapter reports widespread injustice and misery: taxes had doubled since Louis XIV, Paris had 30,000 beggars, and its population fell from 720,000 in 1700 to 620,000 in 1784. The penal code was inhumanly harsh, law was complicated and partial, and national credit so poor that loans required material pledges at five times England's interest. Clergy, nobles and officials were exempt from the main taxes, which fell on common people alone.
Chapter 20
How does the chapter describe the Bastille as a prison before 1789?
The chapter argues the Bastille was by then the most comfortable prison in Paris, detention there often sought as a favour. Prisoners could furnish rooms and keep libraries and food; rooms were warmed, prisoners well fed, and allowances of three to thirty-five francs daily were paid. Yet it remained intolerable because men were confined indefinitely without trial at the king's arbitrary pleasure, and some prisoners were simply forgotten.
Chapter 20
What does the chapter say about Robespierre and Carlyle's portrait of him?
The author argues Carlyle's portrait of Robespierre as the bloodthirsty leader of the later Terror cannot be accepted as history after Louis Blanc's work. Instead, Robespierre's determination to end the extreme Terrorists' excesses and punish pro-consuls like Carrier and Fouche brought about his ruin. Men such as Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varenne and Barrere, the bloodiest Terrorists, united to cast the odium on him and overthrow him to save themselves.
Chapter 20
What did Camille Desmoulins do on 11 July 1789, according to the chapter?
The chapter recounts that Desmoulins, lifted onto the famous table called the tripod of the Revolution in front of the Cafe Foy in the Palais Royal gardens, delivered a short but pregnant oration. He warned the people that a St. Bartholomew of patriots was planned and that Swiss and German troops in the Champ de Mars stood ready for butchery. This preceded the Bastille's capture on 14 July; the first blood of the Revolution in Paris was shed when the crowd, rushing to the Hotel de Ville shouting 'To arms!', was charged by the Prince de Lambesc at the head of a German regiment.
Chapter 20
CHAPTER XVIII3 cards
What was the vote tally in the National Convention on Louis XVI's death?
Of 745 members, 366 voted for death, 319 for detention and banishment, two for the galleys, and others for death with reservations or delay. The absolute majority was 361. A second vote then decided for summary execution: of 690 present, 380 voted for death within twenty-four hours. The chapter notes three Protestant ministers and eighteen Catholic priests voted for death.
Chapter 21
What constructive measures did the National Convention enact besides the Terror?
The chapter argues historians overemphasize the violent men of '93. The Convention's 11,210 decrees included a national education scheme with free meals, protection of monuments and art inventories, the civil code, the telegraph, decimal system, uniform weights and measures, reformed calendar, and the Louvre and Polytechnic School. It abolished negro slavery in the colonies, earning Wilberforce's praise, and renewed Goldoni's pension with arrears.
Chapter 21
How does the chapter describe Napoleon's rise and its effect on the Republic?
The chapter says militarism ends in autocracy: the officer behind the grape-shot of '95 was made Commander-in-Chief in Italy in 1796. His proclamation to half-starved soldiers promising riches and glory was, the author argues, a frank appeal to base motives and personal ambition marking the beginning of the end of Jacobinism. Italian art and money flowed to Paris; he later crowned himself in Notre Dame.
Chapter 21
SECTION I4 cards
What does the west facade's central portal of Notre Dame depict?
The central portal shows the Last Judgment: the dead rising at the last trump, St. Michael weighing souls, demons hauling the damned to Hell while the elect look to Heaven, and Christ the Judge flanked by angels, the Virgin, and the Baptist. The archivolts add demons and personified death on one side, the heavenly host on the other, with the wise and foolish virgins on the jambs.
Chapter 22
What does the author say about the gallery of kings above the portals?
The gallery holds twenty-eight kings, and the author notes authorities are divided between the kings of France and the kings of Israel and Judah, the Virgin's royal ancestry. The author argues for the latter view, citing analogy with other cathedrals. The gallery dates no later than 1220, but the statues themselves are modern reproductions.
Chapter 22
How does the chapter describe the north portal's zodiac and seasonal carvings?
The portal of the Virgin, under the north tower, has thirty-seven vivid reliefs on the jambs and casements showing the signs of the Zodiac, the seasons, and the labours of the year — the author calls it a kind of almanac of stone of rare invention and execution. The tympanum shows the ark of the Covenant, the burial of the Virgin, and Our Lady in glory.
Chapter 22
What remains of the Cite's many old churches, according to the chapter?
The chapter notes Felibien's 1725 map marked eighteen churches on the island, yet scarce a wrack remains. It lists vanished sanctuaries like Ste. Genevieve des Ardents and St. Pierre des Arces, and says St. Marine became a joiner's workshop while a Ste. Madeleine chapel served as a wine merchant's store. Only Notre Dame and parts of the Palais, including the Sainte-Chapelle, survive.
Chapter 22
SECTION II4 cards
What was the Petit Chatelet, demolished in 1782, and where did it stand?
The Petit Chatelet was a gloomy prison where many a rowdy student was incarcerated. It stood on the site of the Place du Petit Pont, near the west end of the Parvis of Notre Dame, where the old Roman Road (now Rue St. Jacques) begins after crossing the Petit Pont. It was demolished in 1782.
Chapter 23
Which institutions and events does the chapter associate with St. Julien le Pauvre?
The modest twelfth-century church, now used for Uniat Greek services, is where St. Gregory of Tours found the drunken impostor, where the University of Paris first held its sittings, and where twice a year the royal provost swore to preserve the privileges of the rector, masters and scholars. Buridan's house stood nearby.
Chapter 23
What does the chapter say about the College des Lombards on Rue des Carmes?
At No. 15 is the site of the old Italian College, much of which still exists, including the chapel, partly occupied by a Catholic Workmen's Club. Rebuilt by two Irish priests, Michael Kelly and Patrick Moggin, it sheltered forty missionary priests and an equal number of poor Irish scholars, and the earliest disciples of Loyola found temporary shelter there.
Chapter 23
What happened at the place Maubert, and how is it remembered?
Many Protestant martyrs were burnt there, including the printer-philosopher Etienne Dolet, friend of Erasmus, Marot and Melancthon, whose bronze statue stands on the Place. Dolet's martyrdom is still yearly celebrated there by democratic Parisians, and the Place was famous for barricades during the Fronde and later Revolutionary times.
Chapter 23
SECTION III4 cards
What does the chapter say about the Ecole des Beaux Arts and its origins?
The Ecole des Beaux Arts stands on the Quai Malaquais, on the site of the old Convent of the Petits Augustins where Lenoir organised his museum. It was founded by the Convention and is now one of Europe's most important art-teaching centres. Its first courtyard holds the Portal of the Chateau of Anet, built for Diana of Poitiers by Delorme and Goujon in 1548, and a facade from the Chateau of Gaillon.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter note about St. Germain des Pres and its former monastery?
The church as now seen was rebuilt 1000-1163, enlarged in 1237, and restored in the first half of the nineteenth century. Part of the great tower is said to have resisted the Norman conflagrations. Of the fortress-monastery with its domains, cloisters, prison and pillory, only a memory remains; its fortifications were razed in the seventeenth century. Flandrin's frescoes illustrate Old and New Testament scenes.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter say about the Musee de Cluny and its collections?
The late Gothic palace, built for the abbots of Cluny in 1490, now houses a medieval and renaissance collection the chapter calls unparalleled in Europe for variety, excellence and beauty. About 12,000 exhibits are uncatalogued, and the old catalogue is out of date. Highlights include the Boussac tapestries, Limoges enamels, Della Robbia ware, and nine golden Visigothic crowns found near Toledo in 1860.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter relate about the surgeons' guild and the Cordeliers?
The old School of Surgery or Guild of SS. Cosmas and Damian was founded by St. Louis. Its charter compelled surgeons to give free aid to the poor every Monday, and churchwardens obtained a papal Bull to erect a consulting-room in their church. In 1694 the surgeons built an anatomical theatre, enlarged in 1710 and now an art school. The Cordeliers' Refectory, now the Musee Dupuytren, is where Marat's body was laid after his assassination.
Chapter 24
SECTION IV4 cards
How did the royal art collection become the Louvre's public gallery in 1793?
The National Convention, on Barrere's motion, restored the royal pictures to Paris in 1793; combined with works rescued from suppressed churches and monasteries by Lenoir, they formed the famous gallery, formally opened to the public on the first anniversary of the 10th of August.
Chapter 25
What was Alexandre Lenoir's role in preserving French art during the Revolution?
Appointed by the National Assembly as Director of a Commission for Monuments, Lenoir stored rescued objects at the Petits Augustins monastery. He saved some 500 historical and royal monuments and about 2,600 pictures, though receipts for roughly 600 pictures reclaimed by the Revolutionary Tribunal and burned show he was only partially successful.
Chapter 25
What three theories does the chapter give for the Venus of Melos's missing arms?
The chapter summarizes three conflicting theories: (1) the left hand held an apple while the right supported drapery; (2) the figure was a Victory holding a shield and a winged figure on an orb; (3) Solomon Reinach's latest conjecture that it is the sea-goddess Amphitrite holding a trident in the extended left arm.
Chapter 25
How were Napoleon's captured art spoils reduced in 1815?
In 1815, 5,233 works of art were returned to their original owners under British supervision. British sentinels lined the galleries and soldiers stood under arms in the quadrangle and Place du Carrousel to protect the workmen during the removal, which was ostentatiously carried out to the bitter humiliation of the Parisians.
Chapter 25
SECTION V4 cards
Which two frescoes from the Villa Lemmi are seen on the landing of the Escalier Daru?
Two frescoes from the Villa Lemmi, decorated by Botticelli for the nuptials of Lorenzo Tornabuoni and Giovanna Albizzi, hang on either side of the second landing. On the left, The Three Graces are presented to the bride; on the right, The Seven Liberal Arts to the bridegroom. The latter fresco is generally believed to have been the work of a pupil.
Chapter 26
What does the chapter say about Cimabue's Virgin and Child (No. 1260) in Room VII?
The chapter notes No. 1260, a Virgin and Child by Cimabue, while adding the caveat 'if indeed we may now assign any work to that elusive personality.' A footnote quotes an editorial note to Crowe and Cavalcaselle stating it cannot be proved that a single picture attributed to Cimabue was painted by him.
Chapter 26
Which Fra Angelico work does the chapter call the gem of Room VII, and how does Vasari describe it?
The chapter calls No. 1290, Fra Angelico's Coronation of the Virgin, the gem of the collection and one of the most precious pictures in Europe. Vasari declared it might have been painted by one of the blessed spirits or angels in the picture, so delightful were their forms, and said he never gazed on it without discovering fresh beauties.
Chapter 26
What dispute surrounds Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks (No. 1599) in the Grande Galerie?
The chapter says French critics warmly champion the genuineness of No. 1599, the famous Virgin of the Rocks, against the similar picture in the National Gallery stoutly defended as the original by English authorities. Professor Legros, with impartial judgment, assures us both are copies of a lost original.
Chapter 26
Section D.4 cards
Why was Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin removed from its church in Rome?
The chapter states that Caravaggio, called the anti-Christ of painting, painted 1121, Death of the Virgin, a realistic representation of a sacred subject. This realism so shocked the pious at Rome that the picture was removed from the church for which it had been painted. The chapter also notes that Caravaggio was chief representative of the Italian Naturalists, a seceding school from the Eclectics.
Chapter 27
What reward did Ribera's Portrait of Alof, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, bring the artist?
According to the chapter, the portrait 1124, Portrait of Alof, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, brought the artist a chain of gold, two Turkish prisoners and a knighthood. The chapter lists this work among pieces hung on the wall with works by the Italian Naturalists, and describes Ribera elsewhere as obviously much influenced by the Italian Naturalists.
Chapter 27
Which four Holbein portraits does the chapter single out as of supreme excellence?
The chapter calls the Holbein portraits the chief glory of the German collection and names four of supreme excellence: 2715, Erasmus; 2714, William Wareham, Archbishop of Canterbury; 2713, Nicholas Kratzer, Astrologer to Henry VIII.; and 2718, Anne of Cleves. It adds that 2719, Richard Southwell, is a doubtful Holbein.
Chapter 27
What does the chapter say about the provenance and price of Murillo's The Immaculate Conception?
The chapter states that 1709, The Immaculate Conception, a favourite Spanish theme by the most popular of Spanish masters, was acquired at the Soult sale in 1852 for 615,000 francs. It describes the work as a grandiose representation of the Woman of the Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet. The Birth of the Virgin, 1710, came from the same collection.
Chapter 27
Section D. (part 1)4 cards
Who painted the Parlement of Paris altar-piece, and what figures flank the Crucifixion?
The famous altar-piece of the Parlement of Paris (998A), recently transferred from the Palais de Justice, shows a Crucifixion with St. Louis and the Baptist on the left, and St. Denis and Charlemagne on the right. Its background depicts the old Louvre and the abbey of St. Germain.
Chapter 28
How does the chapter distinguish the several Clouet artists called Jehanet?
The senior Jehan Clouet, born in Flanders in 1420, came to France in 1460 as painter to the Duke of Burgundy. His son Jehan, called Maitre Jehan or Jehanet, appears in royal accounts in 1528 as court painter to Francis I. Francois Clouet (1500-1572) was the most talented, and Jehan the younger was called Clouet de Navarre. The chapter notes each was known as Maitre Jehanet, causing much confusion.
Chapter 28
What warning inscription appears in Poussin's Shepherds of Arcady, and what does it mean?
Poussin's Shepherds of Arcady (734), called his masterpiece, shows a group of shepherds of the Vale of Tempe in the heyday of health and beauty, arrested in their enjoyment of life by the warning inscription on a tomb: Et in arcadia ego, meaning 'I, too, once lived in Arcady.'
Chapter 28
Why did Poussin leave Paris for Rome after Louis XIII brought him back?
In 1640, after two years of negotiations and the personal intervention of Louis XIII, Poussin returned to Paris to help decorate the Louvre, despite generous pay and a palazzetto with a garden. The petty jealousies, chicanery and low standard of his rivals revolted his artistic conscience; he obtained leave to return to Rome 'to fetch his wife' and never left the city again.
Chapter 28
Section D. (part 2)4 cards
How does Okey characterize Watteau's galante scenes and their underlying mood?
The author argues Watteau clothed scenes of coquetry, frivolity and amorous dalliance in a refined, delicate grace, with a poetic touch for landscape and a tender sense of the tears in mortal things. Okey suggests, following Walter Pater, that Watteau's success in painting these perishable graces, with their delicate odour of decay, was probably due to the fact that he despised them.
Chapter 29
What did Reynolds observe about Boucher's working methods in his later years?
Reynolds visited Boucher in Paris and noted the change in his work. He found the artist at work on a large picture without studies or models of any kind. When Reynolds expressed surprise, Boucher told him that he had used them in earlier days but had dispensed with them for many years. Okey says Boucher's loose habits and careless methods are reflected in slovenly drawing and waning invention.
Chapter 29
Why did the Academy classify Greuze as a genre painter rather than an historical painter?
Greuze painted 368, Severus Reproaching Caracalla, as his diploma picture, attempting a flight beyond his powers. To his profound disgust, the Academy refused to admit him as an historical painter and classed him as a genre painter. Okey notes that Greuze's sentimental works, such as Return of the Prodigal and The Broken Pitcher, overstep the border between sentiment and sentimentality.
Chapter 29
What was David's theory of art, and how does Okey judge The Sabine Women?
David applied himself to studying the antique, aiming to rejuvenate art and found a school inspired by heroic Greece and Rome. He regarded The Sabine Women as the most successful expression of his theory and imagined it the most Greek of his works. Okey argues nothing could be farther from Greek self-restraint and noble simplicity than these self-conscious, histrionic groups, and that David is greatest when painting direct from life.
Chapter 29
Section D. (part 3)3 cards
How does the chapter characterize Millet's Spring and The Gleaners?
The chapter says Spring's coloration may at first seem forced and strange but is absolutely faithful to Nature, as a writer who observed similar forest colour effects can testify. The Gleaners, called 'the three fates of poverty,' is described as next to the Angelus the most popular of Millet's works.
Chapter 30
What did Courbet do in 1855 and what was his artistic creed?
Finding his works badly hung at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855, Courbet erected a wooden shed near the entrance and exhibited thirty-eight large pictures, defiantly painting 'REALISM: G. COURBET' outside. He denounced imagination as humbug and wanted railway stations, factories and mines painted as the verites vraies. The author argues Realism involves a fallacy, since idealistic creations are as real as mean things seen meanly.
Chapter 30
What happened to Courbet after the Commune of 1871?
Courbet's revolutionary nature nearly cost him his life in 1848 and involved him in the Commune in 1871, during which he presided over the destruction of the Vendome Column, though he saved the Luxembourg and Thiers' collection from the people's violence. Mulcted in enormous damages for his share in the overthrow, he was ruined and died in exile.
Chapter 30
SECTION VI4 cards
What was the origin and original name of the Place de l'Hotel de Ville?
In 1141 a sloping bank of sand (greve) east of the Rue St. Martin, facing the old port of the Nautae at St. Landry, was ceded by royal charter to the burgesses of Paris for seventy livres. The charter calls it the gravia, situated where the old market-place (vetus forum) existed. This was the origin of the Place de Greve, later the Place de l'Hotel de Ville.
Chapter 31
What executions and events does the chapter associate with the Place de Greve?
The chapter says the square soaked up blood from 1310, when Philip the Fair burned three heretics, to 1822, when the four serjeants of Rochelle were executed, and 1830, when the last murderer was hung there. Victims included the Marquise de Brinvilliers, burned alive, and Cartouche, broken on the wheel. A permanent gibbet and market cross stood there.
Chapter 31
What does the chapter say about the Hotel de Beauvais and its history?
The princely Hotel de Beauvais was erected in 1660 for Catherine Henriette Belier, Anne of Austria's favourite femme de chambre, wife of Pierre Beauvais. Its street facade was much disfigured and its magnificent wrought-iron balcony destroyed, but the circular porch with Doric columns and metopes and the courtyard by Jean Lepautre remain, with a noble stairway decorated by Desjardins.
Chapter 31
What does the chapter say about the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal and Sully?
The Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal is one of the most important libraries of Paris, where an attendant shows Sully's private cabinet and antechamber with rich decorations left by his successor, including a ceiling painted by Vouet. The chapter relates that Sully endured many outpourings of the Victor of Ivry's domestic woes, including complaints about his ill-tempered Marie's scoldings and the charms of his mistresses.
Chapter 31
SECTION VII4 cards
What saved the Tour St. Jacques from demolition during the Revolution?
When the church of St. Jacques de la Boucherie was sold to housebreakers during the Revolution, the architect Giraud inserted a clause in the warrant exempting the tower from demolition. It later served as a lead foundry, twice narrowly escaped fire, and was threatened again in 1853 by the prolongation of the Rue de Rivoli, which in the end passed just north of it.
Chapter 32
What was the Hotel de Soubise built on, and what is it now?
The Hotel de Soubise, erected in 1704 for the Princesse de Soubise, stands on the site of the old Hotel of Olivier de Clisson, Constable of France, where Charles VI agreed to remit further punishment of revolted burgesses and where the Duke of Clarence lodged during the English occupation. It later became the fortress of the Guises and now houses the National Archives.
Chapter 32
Why was the monastery of the Billettes founded?
The Billettes monastery was founded at the end of the thirteenth century to commemorate the miracle of the Sacred Host, which had defied Jonathan the Jew's efforts to destroy it by steel, fire and boiling water. The chapel, built on the site of the Jew's house in 1294, was rebuilt in 1754 and is now a Protestant church. The Host was preserved until the early eighteenth century in St. Jean en Greve.
Chapter 32
What happened at the Place Royale in 1578?
On 27th April 1578, at five in the morning, the three minions of Henry III began a bloody duel at the Place Royale with the three bullies of the Duke of Guise, fighting until every one was either slain or severely wounded. The square, now Place des Vosges, was built on the site of the Palace of the Tournelles, demolished after Henry II's death.
Chapter 32
SECTION VIII4 cards
What happened to the Fontaine des Innocents after its 1786 move?
The Renaissance fountain, designed by Lescot and Goujon to celebrate Henry II's 1549 entry, was transferred in 1786. It has since been modified and debased: the long side was split to make a third, Pajou added a fourth side, the whole was raised too high on terrace steps, and an unsightly dome was added. Five original Goujon Naiad reliefs remain; Pajou's three additions show higher relief and less refinement.
Chapter 33
What became of the Cemetery of Les Innocents and its charnel-house remains?
The Necropolis of Les Innocents, which for six centuries received much of Paris's dead, occupied roughly the parallelogram of the modern Rues Berger, St. Denis, Ferronnerie and de la Lingerie. In 1786 its piles of remains and skulls were carted to the catacombs, formed from old Gallo-Roman quarries. One vaulted charnel-house survives at No. 7 Rue des Innocents. The enclosure had long sheltered vagabonds and garbage.
Chapter 33
How did royal decree change performances at the Hotel de Bourgogne?
At the Hotel de Bourgogne the Confreres de la Passion performed in the sixteenth century until a 1548 royal decree forbade them to play the mystery of the Passion, limiting them to profane, decent and lawful plays. From 1566-1576 complaints arose that the pieces were gross, with blasphemes et impudicites, and ordinances targeted double entente. Corneille's Le Cid and Racine's Andromaque and Phedre were later first enacted there.
Chapter 33
What does the chapter record about St. Eustache's notable events and architecture?
St. Eustache, begun in 1532 by Pierre Lemercier and completed over a century later by Jacques Lemercier, mixes Gothic and Renaissance styles. In 1587 a friar recounting Mary Queen of Scots' execution moved the congregation to tears. On 4 April 1791 Mirabeau's funeral was held there amid national mourning; a discharge of arms brought down plaster, and his body went first to the Pantheon.
Chapter 33
SECTION IX4 cards
What happened at the Theatre des Varietes on 4 November 1789?
Chenier's patriotic tragedy Charles IX. was performed there while the Comedie Francaise was split by rival factions. The pit applauded Talma frantically as he created the role of Charles IX., staging the days of St. Bartholomew. Bishops tried to stop performances and priests refused absolution to penitents who attended, while the stage became an arena of political factions.
Chapter 34
What caused the uproar at the first performance of Hugo's Hernani in 1830?
Romanticists and Classicists packed the theatre as partisans. Less than two lines were spoken before the devotees of Racine howled in outrage at Hugo's heresy of letting an adjective stray into the second line of verse. Led by Theophile Gautier, the Romanticists answered fiercely, and night after night the literary sects fought, so Hugo said the performances resembled battles rather than plays.
Chapter 34
What was the Cafe de Foy's role in the Revolution, and how did it change?
Camille Desmoulins sounded the war-cry of the Revolution from one of its tables, and bulletins of the National Assembly were read there publicly. Later the cafe made a complete volte-face, raised its ices to twenty sous and grew Royalist, its frequenters carrying sword-sticks and loaded canes. Patriots stormed it, expelled the Royalists and disinfected the salon with gin.
Chapter 34
What is the history of the Vendome Column as described in the chapter?
The chapter calls it a boastful column, a pitiful plagiarism of Trajan's Column at Rome. The Commune succeeded in 1871 where the Allies failed in 1814, laying the column in the dust, but it was raised again by the Third Republic in 1875. The Place Vendome was intended by Louvois to be the most spacious in the city.
Chapter 34
SECTION X4 cards
What architectural significance does the west facade of St. Denis hold?
Completed about 1140 by Abbot Suger, the west facade is of profound interest because it shows the round Romanesque arch side by side with the Pointed, marking the first grip of the new Gothic style on the heavy Norman architecture it was about to overthrow.
Chapter 35
What happened to St. Denis's structure after 1219, and when was rebuilding done?
In 1219 Suger's structure was nearly destroyed by fire. The upper part of the choir, the nave, and the transepts were afterwards rebuilt in the pure Gothic of the times, with the more active reconstruction effected between 1231 and 1281.
Chapter 35
Why were the medieval tombs removed from St. Denis, and who restored them?
A decree of 1792 ordered the effacement of proud epitaphs and destruction of mausoleums recalling dread memories of kings. Lenoir claimed the monuments for his Museum at Paris. They were restored to their original places so far as possible by Viollet le Duc.
Chapter 35
How are the royal effigies rendered on the tomb of Louis XII and Anne?
The monument to Louis XII and his beloved and chere Bretonne, Anne, is in Italian style and was wrought by the Justes, a family of Tourraine sculptors. The royal effigies are twice rendered: once naked in death under a tabernacle and again kneeling in prayer.
Chapter 35
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