As to the nobility, a series of researches and publications, begun by Pierre d’Hozier (d. 1660) and continued well on into the 19th century by several of his descendants, developed into the Armorial général de la France, which was remodelled several times. A similar work, of a more critical nature, was carried out by Père Anselme (Histoire généalogique de la maison de France et des grands officiers de la couronne, 1674) and by Père Ange and Père Simplicien, who completed the work (3rd ed. in 9 vols., 1726-1733). Critical bibliography is especially represented by certain Protestants, expelled from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Bayle, the sceptic, famous for his Dictionnaire critique (1699), which is in part a refutation of the Dictionnaire historique et géographique published in 1673 by the Abbé Louis Moréri, was the first to publish the Nouvelles de la république des lettres (1684-1687), which was continued by Henri Basnage de Beauval under the title of Histoire des ouvrages des savants (24 vols.). In imitation of this, Jean Le Clerc successively edited a Bibliothèque universelle et historique (1686-1693), a Bibliothèque choisie (1703-1713), and a Bibliothèque ancienne et moderne (1714-1727). These were the first of our “periodicals.”
The 18th century continues the traditions of the 17th. The Benedictines still for some time hold the first place. Dom Edmond Martène visited numerous archives (which were then closed) in France and neighbouring countries, and drew from them the material for two important collections: Thesaurus novus anecdotorum (9 vols., 1717, in collaboration with Dom Ursin Durand) and Veterum scriptorum collectio (9 vols., 1724-1733). Dom Bernard de Montfaucon also travelled in search of illustrated records of antiquity; private collections, among others the celebrated collection of Gaignières (now in the Bibliothèque Nationale), provided him with the illustrations which he published in his Monuments de la monarchie françoise (5 vols., 1729-1733). The text is in two languages, Latin and French. Dom Martin Bouquet took up the work begun by the two Duchesnes, and in 1738 published vol. i. of the Historians of France (Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptores), an enormous collection which was intended to include all the sources of the history of France, grouped under centuries and reigns. He produced the first eight volumes himself; his work was continued by several collaborators, the most active of whom was Dom Michel J. Brial, and already comprised thirteen volumes when it was interrupted by the Revolution. In 1733, Antoine Rivet de La Grange produced vol. i. of the Histoire littéraire de la France, which in 1789 numbered twelve volumes. While Dom C. François Toustaint and Dom René Prosper Tassin published a Nouveau Traité de diplomatique (6 vols., 1750-1765), others were undertaking the Art de vérifier les dates (1750; new and much enlarged edition in 1770). Still others, with more or less success, attempted histories of the provinces.
In the second half of the 18th century, the ardour of the Benedictines of St Maur diminished, and scientific work passed more and more into the hands of laymen. The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, founded in 1663 and reorganized in 1701, became its chief instrument, numbering among its members Denis François Secousse, who continued the collection of Ordonnances des rois de France, begun (1723) by J. de Laurière; J.-B. de La Curne de Sainte Palaye (Mémoires sur l’ancienne chevalerie, 1759-1781; Glossaire de la langue française depuis son origine jusqu’à la fin de Louis XIV, printed only in 1875-1882); J.-B. d’Anville (Notice sur l’ancienne Gaule tirée des monuments, 1760); and L.G. de Bréquigny, the greatest of them all, who continued the publication of the Ordonnances, began the Table chronologique des diplômes concernant l’histoire de France (3 vols., 1769-1783), published the Diplomata, chartae, ad res Francicas spectantia (1791, with the collaboration of La Porte du Theil), and directed fruitful researches in the archives in London, to enrich the Cabinet des chartes, where Henri Bertin (1719-1792), an enlightened minister of Louis XV., had in 1764 set himself the task of collecting the documentary sources of the national history. The example set by the religious orders and the government bore fruit. The general assembly of the clergy gave orders that its Procès verbaux (9 vols., 1767-1789) should be printed; some of the provinces decided to have their history written, and mostly applied to the Benedictines to have this done. Brittany was treated by Dom Lobineau (1707) and Dom Morice (1742); the duchy of Burgundy by Dom Urbain Plancher (1739-1748); Languedoc by Dom Dominique Vaissète (1730-1749, in collaboration with Dom Claude de Vic; new ed. 1873-1893); for Paris, its secular history was treated by Dom Michel Félibien and Dom Lobineau (1725), and its ecclesiastical history by the abbé Lebeuf (1745-1760; new ed. 1883-1890).
This ever-increasing stream of new evidence aroused curiosity, gave rise to pregnant comparisons, developed and sharpened the critical sense, but further led to a more and more urgent need for exact information. The Académie des Inscriptions brought out its Histoire de l’Académie avec les mémoires de littérature tirés de ses registres (vol. i. 1717; 51 vols. appeared before the Revolution, with five indexes; vide the Bibliographie of Lasteyrie, vol. iii. pp. 256 et seq.). Other collections, mostly of the nature of bibliographies, were the Journal des savants (111 vols., from 1665 to 1792; vide the Table méthodique by H. Cocheris, 1860); the Journal de Trévoux, or Mémoires pour l’histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts, edited by Jesuits (265 vols., 1701-1790); the Mercure de France (977 vols., from 1724 to 1791). To these must be added the dictionaries and encyclopaedias: the Dictionnaire de Moréri, the last edition of which numbers 10 vols. (1759); the Dictionnaire géographique, historique et politique des Gaules et de la France, by the abbé J.J. Expilly (6 vols., 1762-1770; unfinished); the Répertoire universel et raisonné de jurisprudence civile, criminelle, canonique et bénéficiale, by Guyot (64 vols., 1775-1786; supplement in 17 vols., 1784-1785), reorganized and continued by Merlin de Douai, who was afterwards one of the Montagnards, a member of the Directory, and a count under the Empire.
The historians did not use to the greatest advantage the treasures of learning provided for them; they were for the most part superficial, and dominated by their political or religious prejudices. Thus works like that of Père Gabriel Daniel (Histoire de France, 3 vols., 1713), of Président Hénault (Abrégé chronologique, 1744; 25 editions between 1770 and 1834), of the abbé Paul François Velly and those who completed his work (Histoire de France, 33 vols., 1765 to 1783), of G.H. Gaillard (Histoire de la rivalité de la France et de l’Angleterre, 11 vols., 1771-1777), and of L.P. Anquetil (1805), in spite of the brilliant success with which they met at first, have fallen into a just oblivion. A separate place must be given to the works of the theorists and philosophers: Histoire de l’ancien gouvernement de la France, by the Comte de Boulainvilliers (1727), Histoire critique de l’établissement de la monarchie françoise dans les deux Gaules, by the abbé J.B. Dubos (1734); L’Esprit des lois, by the président de Montesquieu (1748); the Observations sur l’histoire de France, by the abbé de Mably (1765); the Théorie de la politique de la monarchie française, by Marie Pauline de Lézardière (1792). These works have, if nothing else, the merit of provoking reflection.
At the time of the Revolution this activity was checked. The religious communities and royal academies were suppressed, and France violently broke with even her most recent past, which was considered to belong to the ancien régime. When peace was re-established, she began the task of making good the damage which had been done, but a greater effort was now necessary in order to revive the spirit of the institutions which had been overthrown. The new state, which was, in spite of all, bound by so many ties to the former order of things, seconded this effort, and during the whole of the 19th century, and even longer, had a strong influence on historical production. The section of the Institut de France, which in 1816 assumed the old name of Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, began to reissue the two series of the Mémoires and of the Notices et extraits des manuscrits tirés de la bibliothèque royale (the first volume had appeared in 1787); began (1844) that of the Mémoires présentés par divers savants and the Comptes rendus (subject index 1857-1900, by G. Ledos, 1906); and continued the Recueil des historiens de France, the plan of which was enlarged by degrees (Historiens des croisades, obituaires, pouillés, comptes, &c.), the Ordonnances and the Table chronologique des diplômes. During the reign of Louis Philippe, the ministry of the interior reorganized the administration of the archives of the departments, communes and hospitals, of which the Inventaires sommaires are a mine of precious information (see the Rapport au ministre, by G. Servois, 1902). In 1834 the ministry of public instruction founded a committee, which has been called since 1881 the Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, under the direction of which have been published: (1) the Collection des documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire de France (more than 260 vols. have appeared since 1836); (2) the Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques de France; (3) the Dictionnaires topographiques (25 vols. have appeared); and the Répertoires archéologiques of the French departments (8 vols. between 1861 and 1888); (4) several series of Bulletins, the details of which will be found in the Bibliographie of Lasteyrie. At the same time were founded or reorganized, both in Paris and the departments, numerous societies, devoted sometimes partially and sometimes exclusively to history and archaeology; the Académie Celtique (1804), which in 1813 became the Société des Antiquaires de France (general index by M. Prou, 1894); the Société de l’Histoire de France (1834); the Société de l’École des Chartes (1839); the Société de l’Histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France (1874; four decennial indexes), &c. The details will be found in the excellent Bibliographie générale des travaux historiques et archéologiques publiés par les sociétés savantes de France, which has appeared since 1885 under the direction of Robert de Lasteyrie.
Individual scholars also associated themselves with this great literary movement. Guizot published a Collection de mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France (31 vols., 1824-1835); Buchon, a Collection des chroniques nationales françaises écrites en langue vulgaire du XIIIe au XVIe siècle (47 vols., 1824-1829), and a Choix de chroniques et mémoires sur l’histoire de France (14 vols., 1836-1841); Petitot and Monmerqué, a Collection de mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France (131 vols., 1819-1829); Michaud and Poujoulat, a Nouvelle Collection de mémoires pour servir a l’histoire de France (32 vols., 1836-1839); Barrière and de Lescure, a Bibliothèque de mémoires relatifs à l’histoire de France pendant le XVIIIe siècle (30 vols., 1855-1875); and finally Berville and Barrière, a Collection des mémoires relatifs à la Révolution Française (55 vols., 1820-1827). The details are to be found in the Sources de l’histoire de France, by Alfred Franklin (1876). The abbé J.P. Migne in his Patrologia Latina (221 vols., 1844-1864), re-edited a number cf texts anterior to the 13th century. Under the second empire, the administration of the imperial archives at Paris published ten volumes of documents (Monuments historiques, 1866; Layettes du trésor des chartes, 1863, which were afterwards continued up to 1270; Actes du parlement de Paris, 1863-1867), not to mention several volumes of Inventaires. The administration of the Bibliothèque impériale had printed the Catalogue général de l’histoire de France (10 vols., 1855-1870; vol. xi., containing the alphabetical index to the names of the authors, appeared in 1895). Other countries also supplied a number of useful texts; there is much in the English Rolls series, in the collection of Chroniques belges, and especially in the Monumenta Germaniae historica.
At the same time the scope of history and its auxiliary sciences becomes more clearly defined; the École des Chartes produces some excellent palaeographers, as for instance Natalis de Wailly (Éléments de paléographie, 1838), and L. Delisle (q.v.), who has also left traces of his profound researches in the most varied departments of medieval history (Bibliographie des travaux de M. Léopold Delisle, 1902); Anatole de Barthélemy made a study of coins and medals, Douët d’Arcq and G. Demay of seals. The works of Alexandre Lenoir (Musée des monuments français, 1800-1822), of Arcisse de Caumont (Histoire de l’architecture du moyen âge, 1837; Abécédaire ou rudiment d’archéologie, 1850), of A. Napoléon Didron (Annales archéologiques, 1844), of Jules Quicherat (Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire, published after his death, 1886), and the dictionaries of Viollet le Duc (Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française, 1853-1868; Dictionnaire du mobilier français, 1855) displayed to the best advantage one of the most brilliant sides of the French intellect, while other sciences, such as geology, anthropology, the comparative study of languages, religions and folk-lore, and political economy, continued to enlarge the horizon of history. The task of writing the general history of a country became more and more difficult, especially for one man, but the task was none the less undertaken by several historians, and by some of eminence. François Guizot treated of the Histoire de la civilisation en France (1828-1830); Augustin Thierry after the Récits des temps mérovingiens (1840) published the Monuments de l’histoire du tiers état (1849-1856), the introduction to which was expanded into a book (1855); Charles Simonde de Sismondi produced a mediocre Histoire des français in 31 vols. (1821-1844), and Henri Martin a Histoire de France in 16 vols. (1847-1854), now of small use except for the two or three last centuries of the ancien régime. Finally J. Michelet, in his Histoire de France (17 vols., 1833-1856) and his Histoire de la Révolution (7 vols., 1847-1853), aims at reviving the very soul of the nation’s past.
After the Franco-German War begins a better organization of scientific studies, modelled on that of Germany. The École des Hautes Études, established in 1868, included in its programme the critical study of the sources, both Latin and French, of the history of France; and from the séminaire of Gabriel Monod came men of learning, already prepared by studying at the École des Chartes: Paul Viollet, who revived the study of the history of French law; Julien Havet, who revived that of Merovingian diplomatics; Arthur Giry, who resumed the study of municipal institutions where it had been left by A. Thierry, prepared the Annales carolingiennes (written by his pupils, Eckel, Favre, Lauer, Lot, Poupardin), and brought back into honour the study of diplomatics (Manuel de diplomatique, 1894); Auguste Molinier, author of the Sources de l’histoire de France (1902-1904; general index, 1906), &c. Auguste Longnon introduced at the École des Hautes Études the study of historical geography (Atlas historique de la France, in course of publication since 1888). The universities, at last reorganized, popularized the employment of the new methods. The books of Fustel de Coulanges and Achille Luchaire on the middle ages, and those of A. Aulard on the revolution, gave a strong, though well-regulated, impetus to historical production. The École du Louvre (1881) increased the value of the museums and placed the history of art among the studies of higher education, while the Musée archéologique of St-Germain-en-Laye offered a fruitful field for research on Gallic and Gallo-Roman antiquities. Rich archives, hitherto inaccessible, were thrown open to students; at Rome those of the Vatican (Registres pontificaux, published by students at the French school of archaeology, since 1884); at Paris, those of the Foreign Office (Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs depuis le traité de Westphalie, 16 vols., 1885-1901; besides various collections of diplomatic papers, inventories, &c.). Those of the War Office were used by officers who published numerous documents bearing on the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, and on that of 1870-1871. In 1904 a commission, generously endowed by the French parlement, was entrusted with the task of publishing the documents relating to economic and social life of the time of the Revolution, and four volumes had appeared by 1908. Certain towns, Paris, Bordeaux, &c., have made it a point of honour to have their chief historical monuments printed. The work now becomes more and more specialized. L’Histoire de France, by Ernest Lavisse (1900, &c.), is the work of fifteen different authors. It is therefore more than ever necessary that the work should be under sound direction. The Manuel de bibliographie historique of Ch. V. Langlois (2nd edition, 1901-1904) is a good guide, as is his Archives de l’histoire de France (1891, in collaboration with H. Stein).
Besides the special bibliographies mentioned above, it will be useful to consult the Bibliothèque historique of Père Jacques Lelong (1719; new ed. by Fevret de Fontette, 5 vols., 1768-1778); the Geschichte der historischen Forschung und Kunst of Ludwig Wachler (2 vols., 1812-1816); the Bibliographie de la France, established in 1811 (1st series, 1811-1856, 45 vols.; 2nd series, 1 vol. per annum since 1857); the publications of the Société de Bibliographie (Polybiblion, from 1868 on, &c.); the Bibliographie de l’histoire de France, by Gabriel Monod (1888); the Répertoire of the abbé Ulysse Chevalier (Biobibliographie; new ed. 1903-1907; and Topobibliographie, 1894-1899). Bearing exclusively on the middle ages are the Bibliotheca historica medii aevi of August Potthast (new ed. 1896) and the Manuel (Les Sources de l’histoire de France, 1901, &c.) of A. Molinier; but the latter is to be continued up to modern times, the 16th century having already been begun by Henri Hausser (1st part, 1906). Finally, various special reviews, besides teaching historical method by criticism and by example, try to keep their readers au courant with literary production; the Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature (1866 fol.), the Revue des questions historiques (1866 fol.), the Revue historique (1876 fol.), the Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, accompanied annually by a valuable Répertoire méthodique (1898 fol.); the Revue de synthèse historique (1900 fol.), &c.