Giuseppe Cerutti

[1] During the agitations that preceded the French Revolution Cerutti took the popular side, and in 1788 published a pamphlet, Mémoire pour le peuple français, in which in a clear and trenchant style he advocated the claims of the tiers état (third estate).

In May 1789 he presided over the electors of Paris, by whom in January 1791 he was chosen member of the administration of the department and afterwards deputy to the Legislative Assembly.

[1] Probably the largest of Cerutti's literary enterprises was the newspaper La Feuille villageoise founded by him, on 30 September 1790, in collaboration with Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Etienne and Philippe-Antoine Grouvelle.

[3] Actual news reporting played only a minor part in the newspaper's writings: political commentary was by far the primary content.

[4] Less vitriolic and more analytical than many of its more infamous contemporary newspapers, La Feuille villageoise also distinguished itself by rarely identifying individual politicians as enemies of its ideas, but instead relied on a simple trope of aristocrates and patriotes.