Prospectus des cours de l'école centrale du département de l'Yonne; l'administration centrale a ses concitoyens

Auxerre: Imprimerie de Baillif, an VI [1797 or 1798]

24 p. | 8vo | A^8(A4+B^4) | 210 x 142 mm

First and only edition of this prospectus for the recently established École centrale in Auxerre, capital of Yonne. France’s revolutionary administration created the central schools in 1795 to replace its traditional universities. Each of the country’s departments was to have its own, offering a standard slate of courses grounded in scientific education. The present prospectus is a perfect reflection of this national curriculum: drawing/design (dessin), natural history, and ancient languages comprised the first course of study; mathematics, experimental physics and chemistry, comprised the second; and grammar, belle lettres, history, and law rounded out the final course. Students would have been at least 12, 14, and 16 years of age to start the three courses, respectively. This novel national system was dismantled in 1802. ¶ Our prospectus is as much about propaganda and recruitment and as it is about informing Yonne’s good citizens of their educational opportunities. “The establishments of the ancien régime, known as universities, were only those in name: they were far from having the scale and order conducive to the development of the human spirit offered by the instruction organized by the law of 3 Brumaire an IV” (p. 2). Even the individual class descriptions—which do touch on course content, provide the professor’s name, and sometimes a sense of who might most benefit from the course—are permeated with a sense of civic responsibility and patriotic rationale. See the class on ancient languages, for example: “It is to the study of these same originals that France is indebted for the celebrity it’s acquired after more than a century of distinguished orators, poets, and intellectuals” (p. 8). And the closing note for the entire prospectus: “Come, young republicans, your career is open; come learn to be free, to love and respect all your fellow beings.” ¶ Rare. We locate a copy only at the Newberry and none in the online Catalogue collectif de France. We find scattered programmes for these central schools, sometimes identical in structure and similar in content, but they’ve lacked the flag-waving fervor of this production.

PROVENANCE: Contemporary inscription on the front page, we think noting the date the central schools were formally established (3 de Brumaire an IV = 25 October 1795).

CONDITION: Untrimmed and stitched through the fold, retaining all deckle edges. ¶ A trifle dusty in spots, but generally well preserved in original condition.

REFERENCES: Not in Martin and Walter’s Catalogue de l’histoire de la Révolution française ¶ Catherine Merot, “Le recrutement des écoles centrales sous la Révolution,” Revue historique 274.2 (Oct-Dec 1985), p. 357-358

Item #405