PRIMARY RESOURCES FOR FRENCH STUDIES
ONLINE CATALOG
Attaching as sub-headings in your search words such as sources, archival resources,
correspondence, pamphlets, periodicals, personal narratives, or documents, will
pull up primary source material. Periodicals written at the time of an event
may include observations or comments on current affairs, for example. People’s
letters are primary sources, as are government produced materials. Some examples:
Manet, Edouard 1832-1883--correspondence.
France--history--sources. Painting--French--sources.
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Special Collections contains the French Monarchy Collection. It includes over 6,000 volumes and 3,000 pamphlets about the French royal families and the French monarchical institution from the 10th c. to the 19th century, including the art and architecture of the period. There is no printed guide to this collection. Access is via author, title, and subject in the online catalog for M.S.U. Libraries. If the location of an item on a French topic is Special Collections it is likely part of this collection. If you wish to use Special Collections’ materials specifically, try confining your search to the library location “Special Collections” and then do your search.
ARTFL
ARTFL is a corpus of nearly 2,000 searchable texts ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing to which the M.S.U. Libraries subscribes. It is available on the WWW and may be accessed via our Electronic Resources Pages. The 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries are about equally represented, with a smaller number of 17th century texts and some medieval and Renaissance ones. Recently added is a Provencal database of 38 texts with original spellings. Genres include novels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises. Subjects covered include literary criticism, biology, history, economics, and philosophy. The basis for the database are items from the Tresor de la Langue Francaise, dictionary of the French language (in Reference, PC 2625 .I4 v. 1-16). The database is being developed as a joint project of CNRS, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientific and the University of Chicago.
CENTER FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES
This is a library for libraries in Chicago which collects primary resources on a scale and at a depth which no one library in America could afford or would need to own on its own. We borrow materials from CRL for our patrons via Document Delivery. Their catalogue is on the WWW at http://crlcatalog.uchicago.edu. A number of sources on this bibliography in the MICROFORMS section are held there, not here at M.S.U. To find out what is in these sets, check the CRL online catalog.
MICROFORMS (on 2 west)
Baedeker’s Handbooks for Travellers. 266 editions published before WWII. Cataloged separately. Check online catalog under this title and choose country and date of publication. Useful for studying travel to certain places in the past, as well as for cultural information contained. The bibliography Baedeker’s Handbooks for Travellers, a Bibliography of English Editions Published Prior to World War II (Microform guides Z 6016 .T7 G73 1975 c. 2) contains a list of titles in the set.
Benoist d’Azy, Denys, Comte, 1796-1880. [Lettres de Denys Benoist d’Azy a Son
Pere, Pierre-Vincent, Comte Benoist, 1812-1829] and [Lettres de Denys Benoist
d’Azy a Sa Femme, nee Amelie Briere d’Azy, 1822-1876]. Guide in Microforms
guides section at CD 1219.5 .B45 P36 1979, Papiers Benoist d’Azy. Films
made from holdings of the French National Archives concerning a 19th
c. French family.
Film # 27960 and #27961
Berlioz, Hector. Works. 80 fiche. French composer 1803-1869.
M3 B51 1968 Microfiche
Catholic Church. Missal (Franciscan). The Franciscan Missal. Executed
in mid 14th c. France, an immense storehouse of Biblical iconography,
remarkable for its number and range of illuminations. Guide at ND 3375 .F7 in
Microforms.
ND 3375 .F7 Microfiche
Condition of the 19th Century French Working Class. 1,215 fiche.
The collection contains documentation on various economic and social aspects
of 19th century working class life in France, including government
reports and private works by physicians, economists, statesmen, and men of letters.
Enquetes sur la Condition Ouvriere du XIX Siecle, by Michelle Perrot
(Main Z 7165 .F8 P43) includes a subject index to the fiche collection and a
descriptive text.
Center for Research Libraries owns, probably not M.S.U.
Les Enquetes des Prefets de l’Empire. 435 fiche. Reproduces 30,000 pages
from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris on the statistical sources on the history
of France as found in the records of the Departments, 1801-1812. Bertrand Gille’s
Les Sources Statistiques de l’Histoire de France, des Enquetes du XVII Siecle
a 1870 (Main 2176 .G5) discusses this material.
DC 26 .E5 no. Microfiche
Fin de Siecle, Symbolist, and Avant-Garde Periodicals. 74 reels. Documents the people and movements of the late 19th century French literary and artistic scene. Compiled from the bibliography in Kenneth Cornell’s The Symbolist Movement (Main PC 439 .C65 1970 and Main PN 801 .Y3 Ser. 2 no. 2), pp. 201-206. Our online catalog shows 8 titles. We have more than this. Here is a list of what I saw on the shelf 8-31-01. Not all the rolls were on the shelf, so this list is probably incomplete. The bibliography describes the contents of each title briefly. Each title is cataloged separately in the online catalog.
Le Chat Noir, film # 12798, 1882-1895
Chimere, Revue Independante et d’Insolence Litteraire,
#12799, 1891-93
La Conque, #12799, 1891-92
Le Coq Rouge, Revue Litteraire, #12799, 1895-97
Les Ecrits pour l’Art, #12799, 1905-6
Les Entretiens Politiques et Litteraires, #12800, 1890-1893
L’Hermitage, #12801, 1890-1906
Les Ibis, #12802, 1894
La Jeune Belgique, #12803, 1881-97
La Jeune France, #12804, 1882-1884
La Jeune Revue Litteraire, #12803, 1880
La Pleiade (Paris), #12805, 1886
La Pleiade (Brussels), #12805, 1889-90
Le Reveil, #12806, 1891-96
La Parnasse Contemporain, Recueil de Vers Nouveau, #12805,
1866-76
Revue d’Aujourd’hui, #12807, 1890
La Revue Independante, #12808, 1884-85
Le Scapin, #12809, 1885-86
La Societe Nouvelle. Sociologie, Arts, Sciences, Lettres,
#12810, 1895?-1914
Les Taches d’Encre, #12811, 1884-1885
La Vogue,#12812, 1886; 1889; 1899-1901
French Books Before 1601. 493 reels plus; this is an ongoing microfilm subscription.
Includes most of the titles listed in the British Museum’s Short-title Catalogue
of Books Printed in France and of French Books Printed in Other Countries from
1470-1600 (Now) in the British Museum (Consulting Ref. Z 2162 .B86) and
Supplement (Consulting Ref. Z 2162 .B86 Suppl 1986). There is a guide
to this set in the Microform Guides section on 2 West at Z 2162 .F7 1965 guide,
called French Books Before 1601: 35 mm Microfilm Edition: Short Title List.
A portion of the titles may be found in the online catalog although the set
is all together at:
film set #4265
French Books 1601-1700. Copies of a Selection of 17th century books.
Basic selection made was made from V. F. Goldsmith’s Short-title Catalogue
of French Books 1601-1700 in the Library of the British Museum, (Consulting
Ref. Z 2162 .B7) but not confined to it.
Center for Research Libraries owns, not M.S.U. Request ILL.
French Drama. Copies of a selection of French drama ranging from the 17th
to the 20th centuries.
On microcards. A Bibliography of French Plays on Microcards by Lawrence
S. Thompson (Microform guides Z 2174 .D7 T48) is a guide to the set.
Titles are separately cataloged.
French Political Pamphlets, 1547-1648 [a Collection on Microfilm]. 86 reels.
Over 7,000 pamphlets based on the bibliography French Political Pamphlets,
1547-1648, by Robert O. Lindsay and John Neu (Microform guides and SPC Z
2177.5 .L54) and Supplement: Listing the Microform Additions to the Original
Edition (Microform guides Z 2177.5 .L54 Suppl).
film set # 17014
French Revolution: Critical and Historical Literature. A selection of available
source material made from various bibliographies.
Center for Research Libraries, not M.S.U.
French Revolutionary Pamphlets. More than 8,000 fiche. Compiled from Horace
E. Hayden’s French Revolutionary Pamphlets, a Check List of the Talleyrand
and Other Collections at the New York Public Library (Main and Microform
guides Z 2179 .N47) and Ambrose Sarick’s Bibliography of the Frank E. Melvin
Collection of Pamphlets of the French Revolution in the University of Kansas
Libraries (Microform guides Z 2179 .S2).
Microcards DC 141 .F7
French Royal and Administrative Acts, 1256-1794. 59 reels. A microfilm collection
of 16,000 pamphlets from the New York Public Library. Common subjects include
fiscal matters, taxation and tariffs, toll collections, criminal justice, military
administration, book printing, guilds, and persons of note. Marcel Lipkowitz
is the author of French Royal and Administrative Acts, 1256-1794, a Subject
Guide to the New York Public Library Collection of 16,000 Pamphlets Now on Microfilm
(Microform guides KMO .L5635), the guide to this set.
Microfilm #14899
French Socialist Congresses. 210 fiche. A microfiche edition of 70 titles,
all the documents of the socialist congresses. An article in Journal of
Modern History, v. 31#2, 1959, by Jack Alden Clarke “French Socialist Congresses,
1876-1911" discusses this material (article is available via JSTOR. Use
the Libraries’ Electronic Resources page).
Center for Research Libraries owns, not M.S.U.
History of Ideas in Europe. 5,000 microcards. Film copies of a collection
of books selected from the collections of the Union Theological Seminary on
the religious and ideological struggles of the Reformation. Most titles in
Latin. 175 entries in our online catalog under this title. The microcards are
arranged by main entry (usually author) and have author and title information
typed on the jackets in which each title is filed.
Microcard D5
Holbach and His Friends, Anticlerical Thought: 1760-1789. 69 fiche. This set contains French materialist and anticlerical works espousing the doctrines of Holbach, all published during the 30 years immediately preceding the French Revolution. Baron Paul Henri Thiry d’Holbach, 1723-1789, was a French philosopher, a leading atheist and materialist who wrote 376 articles for Diderot’s’s Encyclopedie, as well as books on these topics. Titles in this set are separately cataloged. A search on the title of the set shows 37 titles.
Vatican Film Library. The Vatican Film Library at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, contains microfilms of rare and out of print early books initially from the Vatican Library in Rome. The first 80 lists, including those below are of materials from there. Later materials in the collection were filmed from materials at Les Fontaines, Chatilly, France. The Vatican Film Library’s Guide to Microfilms of Vatican Film Library Manuscript Codices Available for Study in the Vatican Film Library at St. Louis University (Main Z 1033 .M5 V3852 1993) and Elizabeth J. Cress’ Guide to Rare and Out of Print Books in the Vatican Film Library, (Consulting Ref. Z 1033 .M5 C73 1986) describe this collection and its contents. We have microfilms of some parts of their collections:
History of European Literature, film #6267
History of Music, Costume, and Printing, #6346
Money, Commerce and Commercial Law, #5090
Maclure Collection of French Revolutionary Materials. A Collection spanning
the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. It contains over 25,000 items,
including cahiers de doleance, privately printed tracts, newspapers, legislative
proceedings, speeches, almanacs, administrative laws and decrees, etc. A book,
The Maclure Collection of French Revolutionary Materials, edited by Hardy,
Jensen and Wolfe, describes the collection (Oversize books Z 2178 .P4).
Center for Research Libraries
Mazarinades. 2,991 fiche. A collection of 3,398 17th-century French
Civil War tracts from the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Mazarinades,
a Catalogue of the Collection of 17th-Century French Civil War Tracts
in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, edited by James E. Walsh describes
this collection (Microform guides and Consulting Ref. Z 2181 .M47 H33 1976).
From this source “So, when during the years 1649-1652 in France, a periodic
generally referred to as the Fronde, a struggle between the government and the
Parlements erupted over the gradual usurpation of power by the monarchy, the
course of that struggle was vividly reflected in a large number of contemporary
pamphlets, known as Mazarinades, after Jules Mazarin, chief minister....”
Microfiche DC 130 .M43
Le Monde. The major French newspaper, published daily in Paris. Our subscription
is for the current paper, which we retain the most current two weeks. These
are kept on the open shelves in the Current Periodical Reading Room with the
other newspapers. We have on microfilm 1956, and 1965-1980. Lexis Nexis is
a WWW resource which provides access to current newspapers from around the world.
Microfilm #1600
Le Monde Diplomatique. French periodical devoted to international relations and diplomacy. Current issues in Periodical Reading Room; back issues since June, 1997 in Remote Storage Oversize at JX 3 .M65. Also available on the WWW at http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/md/index.html
Nicolas de Bonneville et le Cercle Social, 1878-1800. 201 fiche. A collection
of 47 titles, including newspapers and periodicals, works by Nicolas de Bonneville,
Fauchet, Condorcet, Marechal, Saint-Martin, and Thomas Paine, all pro French
Revolutionaries. Nine journals were published by le Cercle Social, nine titles
are by Nicolas de Bonneville, and there are 30 related titles. The Cercle Social,
1790-93, was a club and publishing company begun by a small group of Parisian
intellectuals and municipal leaders in early 1790. Its purpose was to reinterpret
Enlightenment thought in the wake of the Revolution. Abbe Fauchet led the weekly
meetings analyzing Rousseau’s Social Contract. He founded Bouche
de Fer , which is one of the titles in this set. Condorcet, an academic,
philosophe, and mathematician, was the principal spokesman for organized science
in France at the time of the Revolution. Marechal was a writer and journalist,
a leader in Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals. They the Cercle Social members developed
radical notions about the rights of women and the poor and supported the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy. It was involved in the burgeoning democratic movement
and was instrumental in organizing the republican campaign after the King’s
flight to Varennes. The club was suppressed after the “massacre” at the Champ
de Mars, but the publishing company aspect expanded its activities. They published
over 180 pamphlets and journals from 1790-93. R.B. Rose, “Socialism and the
French Revolution: the Cercle Social and the Enrages.” Bulletin of
the John Rylands Library. 41 (1958-1959), is an article that discusses the
Cercle Social.
Checking under the names of the persons mentioned here as authors in the online
catalog will gain access to some of the materials in the set.
Titles are separately cataloged.
Rameau, Jean Philippe. Oeuvres Completes. 7 reels. French composer
who lived from 1683-1754. There is a guide to the set in Microform guides at
M3 .R25 B7 1968.
Microfiche M 3 .R25 B7 1968
Agnes Haigh Widder, Humanities Bibliographer
Sept., 2001