Contact Us

Staff

Qu'ils mangent de la brioche
Geddes Lecture and artifacts light up Sun King's Versailles

By Hope Green

In the 17th century, Louis XIV transformed his family's hunting lodge at Versailles into a massive royal estate ringed by spectacular gardens. His self-aggrandizement is legend: the first of many symbolic fountains that tourists see when they enter the complex is one designed to equate him with the Greek god Apollo -- a figure often associated with the sun god Helios.

An engraving from a 1670 folio volume depicts a grand celebration, staged in 1662 by Louis XIV, to revive the traditions of chivalry and pomp associated with medieval tournaments. This plate shows the main spectacle on the Place du Carrousel in Paris. BU Photo Services, courtesy of Special Collections

In October 1789, almost 75 years after the death of the Sun King, an angry mob marched on Versailles and ousted from the palace his second successor, King Louis XVI, and his widely reviled, much misunderstood queen, Marie Antoinette. The monarchs were forced to live under virtual house arrest in Paris, where a few years later they were tried and guillotined.
The life and times of court society at Versailles will be the focus of an April 19 lecture at CAS, while a corresponding display of antique French volumes, photographs, and engravings will be on view at Mugar Memorial Library.

Louis MacKenzie, a literary scholar and an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame, will speak on Versailles: A Visit to the Vocabulary of Power and Constraint. His talk is part of the annual Geddes Lecture Series, sponsored by the CAS department of modern foreign languages and literatures (MFLL).

MacKenzie plans to look at the early years of the Versailles château under Louis XIV, and the ways he cultivated the symbolism of the castle and the gardens to his advantage.

"Louis XIV built Versailles as a monument to himself," says Elizabeth Goldsmith, a CAS professor of French and MFLL director of graduate studies. "He enlisted the best artists, architects, and landscape gardeners of his time in creating this legend that supported his own power. Many politicians, especially totalitarian leaders, have learned from him, and they still are learning from him today."

MacKenzie will examine famous accounts of court life and social groups, particularly the writings of Jean de la Bruyère, a contemporary of Louis XIV, le Duc de Saint Simon, an early 18th-century historian, and 20th-century social philosopher Norbert Elias.

"It's a pretty broad topic, and the lecture is in English," Goldsmith says. "So it will attract people who are majoring in languages, but not necessarily just French. A lot of people who have visited Versailles will be curious to hear more about it."

The materials on view at Mugar are drawn from the archives of the Department of Special Collections. The oldest item is an illustrated folio volume from 1670, with text by Charles Perrault, author of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. It depicts a lavish medieval-style parade and pageant staged in 1662 by Louis XIV.

Costumed horsemen were dressed as Romans, Persians, Turks, Indians, and Native American Indians, and the king was decked out as a Roman emperor. Multiple engravings in the book offer detailed views of 17th-century Parisian architecture.

Another illustrated book, printed in 1901, traces the history of the Versailles palace and gardens.

While some of the showcased materials relates to Versailles' first royal inhabitants, others tell of the last. Visitors can see an original letter to Marie Antoinette from her brother, Leopold II of Austria, dated May 2, 1791, a year and a half after she and Louis XVI had been forcibly relocated to Paris from Versailles. At this point the revolutionaries were gradually closing in on them at the Tuileries palace.

Hearing that his sister was attempting to plot an escape, Leopold asked how he could be of help.

"I beg of you to . . . instruct me right away of the King's intentions and of yours, of your plans, and what you want me to do or not do, and who are the people in your confidence to whom I can write when they speak in your name and in that of the King," he wrote. "For everyone claims this title and you may well believe that in the present circumstances, between your awkward situation and the fear of doing you harm, I am in a very painful position . . ."

The following month, the royal family was apprehended and brought back to Paris after attempting to flee to Montmédy on the eastern frontier.

Another item in the Special Collections holdings, available for viewing on request, portends the bloody finale of the king and queen's reign. It is a volume of legal documents, pamphlets, and engravings related to their respective trials before they were executed in 1793 -- he in January, and she in October.

The MFLL's Geddes Lecture Series presents Versailles: A Visit to the Vocabulary of Power and Constraint, on Friday, April 19, at 4 p.m., in CAS 427. The Special Collections display, on the main floor of Mugar Memorial Library, is on view through the summer.

12 April 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations