Research Guides: HIST 231: Imagining Enlightenment in 18th-Century Europe (HC): Primary Sources

Texts

Online and Print Collections of Primary Sources

American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language Project (ARTFL)
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Provides full-text access to classical French writings. Includes literary works, political tracts, philosophical writings and technical treatises. Coverage varies.
Burney Collection Newspapers Archive, 17th & 18th Century
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Provides full text to the newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817), representing the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media. The 700 or so bound volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets were published mostly in London, however there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the American colonies, Europe and India. Cross-search all Cengage subscribed newspaper collections via NewsVault.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
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Offers full-text access to English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 including books, pamphlets, almanacs, Bibles and treatises. Subjects covered include history, geography, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, language, religion, philosophy and law. Significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare are also included.

18thConnect
A digital “aggregator,” 18thConnect gathers together information about and links to the best primary and secondary texts that are available in digital form, either freely available on the Web or available by subscription.
Electronic Enlightenment
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Database offering extensive access to the web of correspondence between intellectuals and writers of the long eighteenth century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. Coverage includes letters and documents, drawn from manuscripts, early printed editions, scholarly annotations, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and online resources. The emphasis is on Britain and France with some French material in English translations.
Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences
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Diderot's encyclopedia summarizes knowledge in all branches of study and provides important contextualization for your topic.
This record is for an original printed edition. It can be used in the Library but not checked out. See also the following versions:
Print copy at BMC
ARTFL text in French
University of Michigan collaborative English translation (in progress)
Encyclopedic Liberty: Political Articles in the Dictionary of Diderot and D'Alembert
Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert: Selected Articles in English translation
Illustrated Plates from the Encyclopédie available online on the Michigan site. Note that topics are listed on separate pages alphabetically. Plates are also available in print for checkout.
Selections from The female spectator
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The author Eliza Haywood edited the magazine, The Female Spectator, for women readers beginning in 1744. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it was quite successful and lasted longer tham many other magazines of the time. See the earliest complete edition in ECCO. It was reprinted over the next 30 years and these copies are also listed in Tripod and accessible full text in ECCO.
The spectator
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A reprint of this periodical which was edited and largely written by Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. It was published six times a week from March 1711 to December 1712 and June to December 1714.
The Tatler
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A reprint of an earlier periodical edited by Steele with contributors including Jonathan Swift, attracted by Steele's essay format and Whig politics. It ran from April 1709 through January 1711.
Tout Voltaire
This is a fully searchable database of Voltaire's written works aside from his correspondence (which can be searched in Electronic Enlightenment). The text does not include notes but is considered the most reliable version of Voltaire's writings until the Voltaire Foundation finishes publishing the Complete Works of Voltaire in 2018. Tout Voltaire is made available open access by the Voltaire Foundation and ARTFL Project. Example of a database search:
How often does Voltaire use the terms ‘nation’ and ‘esprit’ in the same sentence?

Topical Collections of Primary Source Excerpts
Diderot on Art
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Diderot, the Enlightenment philosopher and critic, is recognized now as an art critic of the first rank. His Essai sur la peinture (Essay on Painting, 1796) won him posthumous praise as a critic of painting technique and aesthetics. See his writings in French about the Salon of 1765 and Essais sur la peinture.
The Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment is an authoritative anthology of the key political writings from 'one of the best and most hopeful episodes in the life of mankind'. The texts are supported by a lucid introduction exploring their moral, philosophical, political and economic background, enabling the student to grasp both the context and the essence of each argument. Biographical notes and carefully selected bibliographies offer further help.
Essay on the origin of languages and writings related to music. Vol. 7 in The Collected Writings of Rousseau
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Music had a large influence over Rousseau's thinking on aesthetics. He wrote essays about music's origin, meaning, and importance. For the French version of these texts see Ecrits sur la musique, la langue et le théâtre. Œuvres complètes Vol. 5.
Les femmes de Paris: à l'époque des lumière
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" Voir le monde ", écrivait Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814), témoin privilégié des Lumières, et surtout des hommes et des femmes qui y vécurent. A propos de Paris, il écrivit en son époque douze tomes, soit plus de 2 000 pages, intitulés Tableau de Paris. En brefs chapitres, il entre dans Paris, ses moeurs, ses monuments, ses désirs, ses malheurs, ses arrogances et sa vie littéraire, avec une écriture mouvementée, saccadée, fidèle à cette vie fiévreuse qui fut celle de Paris avant la Révolution française. De ce témoignage inédit, Sabine Melchior-Bonnet en a extrait tout ce qui concerne les femmes, pour en faire une sorte de reportage sur la condition féminine telle qu'elle est vécue dans les diverses classes de la société, femmes du monde, bourgeoises, femmes du peuple.
Journal de police
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Premier commissaire de police de Versailles, Narbonne était des mieux placés pour connaître les multiples facettes de la société des lumières. Volontiers espiègle, son sens de la narration rend à ses écrits un pittoresque bien savoureux.
Panorama of Paris: selections from Le tableau de Paris
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This work offers English-language readers an introduction to one of the forgotten masterpieces of French literature, Louis-Sebastien Mercier's 12-volume "Le Tableau de Paris" (published from 1781 to 1788), an important and original work that helped shape many kinds of French writing. The text provides a portrait of everyday life in Paris on the eve of the French revolution, describing the interactions of workers, street peddlers, prostitutes, police spies, actresses, noblemen, parish priests, servants, and criminals. The full text of the 12 volumes in French is available online through the Hathi Trust.
Public Drinking in the Early Modern World: Voices from the Tavern, 1500-1800
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English language versions of primary source texts from France, Germany, and North America.
Voltaire's revolution: Writings from his campaign to free laws from religion
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This is the first English translation of many of Voltaire's key texts from his famous pamphlet war for tolerance, written from 1750 to 1768, originally published under pseudonyms to avoid imprisonment and to educate the average citizen. Included are "The Sermon of Rabbi Akib" (a searing attack on anti-Semitism), a "Prayer to God" (from the famous Treatise on Tolerance), the hugely popular "Catechism of the Honest Man," and other witty, sometimes acerbic pieces that point out the errors in the Bible, the corruption of the clergy, and the faults with religiously-inspired persecutions.

Images

JSTOR Images (formerly Artstor)
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ArtStor presents a rich collection of digital images drawn from colleges, universities and museums. At the top of the page, click on "Enter Artstor Digital Library" and either login or sign up at the top of the page. By registering on the site you can make personal image group folders and download images.
Use the Advanced Search to specify geographic areas, time periods, subjects and artistic forms.

British Museum Collection Online
Gives access by topic, time period, artist and more to a wealth of digitized prints, artifacts and many other objects at the British Museum.

Alexandre Roslin, 1718-1793: un portraitiste pour l'Europe by Magnus Olausson; Xavier Salmon
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The Art of Domestic Life by Kate Retford
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Publication Date: 2006-08-15
This book is the first to explore English family portraiture in the 18th century, a varied category ranging from small-scale conversation pieces to grandiose, full-length images. Kate Retford probes this much-loved genre to trace the values and meanings behind these compositions.
Dansez, embrassez qui vous voudrez: Fêtes et plaisirs d'amour au siècle de Madame de Pompadour by Salmon Xavier
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ISBN: 9788836631544
Publication Date: 2015
This exhibition catalog explores the themes of the fête galante and the pastoral celebrated by the painters Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The themes were picked up and popularized in prints and decorative arts across Europe.
The English Print, 1688-1802 by Timothy Clayton
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Publication Date: 1997-12-22
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Francois Boucher by Jo Hedley (Text by)
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Publication Date: 2004-10-01
"The first monograph to appear on the eighteenth-century French artist, Francois Boucher, for nearly twenty years, this illustrated book charts his spectacular rise from poverty to the position of First Painter to King Louis XV. It provides a detailed account of his stylistic development and, by setting it within the historical and cultural context of its day, provides fresh new insights into Boucher's artistic achievement. Boucher's output as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, tapestry designer and source of inspiration for the decorative arts are all examined, helping to explain his position as the presiding visual genius of eighteenth-century France."--BOOK JACKET.
French Art by Andre Chastel
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Publication Date: 1996-10-09
This third volume of Andre Chastel's history of French art from prehistory to the 19th century explores the extraordinary painting, sculpture, and architecture that emerged during the reigns of Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV.
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, 1724-1780 by Colin B. Bailey; Kim de Beaumont; Suzanne Folds McCullagh; Christophe Leribault; Pierre Rosenberg
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ISBN: 0912114371
Publication Date: 2008-01-18
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, born in 1724, never left his native Paris. He studied at the prestigious Royal Academy but failed to win the coveted Prix de Rome. He is often said to have reacted to this disappointment by throwing aside all hopes of a traditional artistic career and hastening out into the thoroughfares of Paris to sketch everything in sight, living an errant, bohemian existence and succumbing increasingly to an obsession with drawing. But despite his personal eccentricities he was employed as an illustrator all his life.
Hogarth by Mark Hallett
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Publication Date: 2001-03-26
"William Hogarth (1697-1764) is one of the most versatile, innovative and celebrated of all British artists. He lived at a time when Britain was emerging as an increasngly urbanized, commercialized and aggressively imperial power. Like many other artists, he exploited and benefited from these changes in British society. Among his contemporaries, it was Hogarth who commented most brilliantly on society, both positively and negatively. Whether in ink or paint, his work celebrates the benefits of commerce, politeness and patriotism while simultaneously focusing on the corruption, hypocrisy and prejudice that unavoidably appeared in their wake."--BOOK JACKET.
Madame de Pompadour by Colin Jones
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Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Purchasing Power by Sophie Carter
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Publication Date: 2004-05-01
"Prostitution was central to popular print depictions of London in the eighteenth century. Whether deployed as incidental colour in street scenes or providing the sole subject matter for prints, the figure of the prostitute lay at the very heart of the project to depict the fabric and character of the emerging metropolis."
The Satirical Gaze by Cindy McCreery
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Publication Date: 2004-04-08
This is the first scholarly study to focus on satirical prints of women in the late eighteenth century. This was the golden age of graphic satire: thousands of prints were published, and they were viewed by nearly all sections of the population. These prints both reflected and sought to shape contemporary debate about the role of women in society.
Spectacle of Difference by Mark Hallett
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Publication Date: 1999-05-11
"In this original book, Mark Hallett offers a new perspective on English satirical prints of the first half of the eighteenth century, recovering their dual status as ambitious works of graphic art and as eloquent pictorial commentaries on urban culture and politics. "