Royal Almanac

Despite the fact that it could appear indigestible because of the many lists that it contained, the publication enjoyed a wide circulation with a readership consisting primarily of financiers, politicians, and all persons who had an interest in knowing the administrative organization of France.

Although his edition is due to the initiative of a private publisher, included in the lists of the Almanac was a royal official and abuse were therefore punished.

Thus, a Poitevin, Pierre Joly, was interned in the Bastille at the end of the eighteenth century to have usurped the banking profession by being registered as such in the Almanach Royal.

His edition was in regular format in-8 o editor with a binder leather adorned with a sprinkling of fleur de lys gold.

Thus we find lists of counselors of state with their ordinary homes, the commissioners of the Board, auditors general and stewards of finances, the Chancellor, archbishops and bishops of France, universities, and the list of major exhibitions, sessions of the courts of Paris and the log of the Palace, and finally addresses the messengers and items indicating the day of departure.

Here as his widow explains these beginnings : The same year Louis Tribouillet, chaplain of the king and canon of Meaux, publishes its State of France.

Parisians have a choice between three books with similar content: the Almanach Royal Houry, Calendar of the Court of Colombat and the State of France Tribouillet.

In this context, recognition of peers is a valuable asset "if someone has just placed a new post is an overflow of praise in its favor during the floods and the Chapel (...) but c is that while envy and jealousy talk like adulation.. One can understand the need to maintain directories so that everyone can follow the evolution of all these people.

The Almanac and the Royal Court Calendar coexist peacefully for ten years and a lot of money to their authors, but from 1710, Laurent d'Houry integrates more and more topics like the book Colombat Biblio.

The abscess broke out in 1717 when Houry Almanac releases its Abstract that will follow the format of the Calendar of the Court and simultaneously filing a lawsuit against its competitor.

The privilege of the Almanac is about to expire, Charles-Maurice d'Houry tries one last time to seize it, but a royal letter of 27 March 1744 confirmed definitively André-François Le Breton as sole heir.

In 1728, the widow of his grandson, Houry combines son André-François Le Breton, who was 18 years old and an orphan under the guardianship of Charles-Maurice d'Houry.

This rumor became official when accidentally in his edition of 1774, Le Breton added a "Treasurer's grain account of the King" in the person of Sr. Mirlavaud.

Following the death of Joan Nera, widow of Laurent-Charles Houry, the Almanac is echoed by Jean-François-Noël Debure, husband of Anne-Charlotte d'Houry, their daughter.

Relations were strained with his wife because he left the marital home in September 1801 and the only ties that bind the couple are now linked to multiple trials they s'intentent.

It would be tedious to describe in words the evolution of the Almanac of the 237 years that have elapsed since the first edition by Laurent d'Houry in 1683, hence the choice of this table layout.

Until the French Revolution, contributors are cordially invited to provide information to the bookseller, as pointed note of the printer in the first pages of the Almanac.

In 1771, for example, we read in the Journal History of the Revolution that the Bar Association in the person of a certain Gerbier, asserted that "there would be no change in the order of the table, and that it would be printed in the Almanac as Royal was last year, leaving out only the dead."

Only that the reader can find are patterns explaining the oppositions of the planets and eclipses are present every year, and the map of departments of France editions of 1791 and 1792.

It leaves only two months to integrate the information of the year in the text of the previous edition and call all of the pages before submitting the book for the right to shoot.

The editing step, at least for the test in 1706, has not been done with great care as can be seen by very many shells and mistakes which have crept into the table of contents presented in thumbnail to the right.

In the absence of more precise information, we can only estimate at about 15,000, the number of copies sold per year between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

In 1780, a notice of a bookseller named Desnos inserted at the end of the Gazette of 27 offers for courts Ref 8 pounds to "the statesman, letters, and generally all persons attached to the service of the King (... ) Almanach Royal, Calendar of the Court, said Colombat, Mignone Strennas-Note 22, Ref 28, the State Military Note 23, the four connected units, with shelves & stylus to write, which makes the closure ": the Royal Almanac ranks first in the collection.

Since 1717, the Calendar of the Court can not change, its sections are limited to an ephemeris of the celestial motions (30 years) increased by astronomical tables with sky conditions, and timing of the court to the family and royal house, lists of boards, departments and secretaries of state finances, births and deaths of kings, queens, princes and princesses of Europe, the knights of various orders, the archbishops and bishops of the kingdom and Cardinals of the Sacred College.

It is primarily sought for its ephemeris of the celestial motions and astronomical tables of events The Almanac of Business, published by Sébastien Bottin in the eighteenth century contains, besides the addresses of shops in Paris, many useful statistics financiers.

Some have criticized the Almanach Royal of being a plagiarism of the State of France, another administrative directory, the first publication seems to have been made in 1619 and is still published in the middle of the eighteenth century Ref 30.

Offices are described down to the smallest detail Note 25, the state of France is a companion volume of the Almanach royal use by those who wish to deepen their knowledge on the functioning of the French administration.

A reference is then made towards the end of the book "guides for all kinds of ceremonies to be observed in the receipt of any office or employment whether in dress or in the Sword."

In 1716, the king appoints François Perrier Dumouriez as Director General of public pump to remedy fire, without the audience is obliged to pay anything.

Except Dumouriez guards pumps are not professional fire but shoemakers, carpenters, locksmiths, etc.. Almanacs are found regularly in auctions and in the antiquarian booksellers.