Jump to content

Revue des questions historiques

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Revue des questions historiques
DisciplineHistory
LanguageFrench
Publication details
History1866–1939
Publisher
Victor Palmé (France)
FrequencyQuarterly
Yes
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Rev. Quest. Hist.
Links

The Revue des questions historiques (Review of Historical Questions, RQH) was the first scholarly journal published in France or the French language[1] and was the first French historical journal to systematically employ the new German methods of historic research.[2][3]

Foundation

[edit]

The historical journal was established in July 1866 by the Marquis Gaston du Fresne de Beaucourt,[4] Marius Sepet and Léon Gautier[5] and published by Victor Palmé, and with an early editorial team of young[6] former students from the École des Chartes.[7] It was based on the careful German historical methods of Historische Zeitschrift[1] with a commitment to careful study of primary sources.[7]

It was a conservative and ultramontane journal,[8] originally an offshoot of the Revue du monde catholique,[9] and a part of a wider French Catholic intellectual movement in the late nineteenth century,[10] part of an interlocking network of Catholic oriented scholarly journals.[11] Although it has been placed in the context of a "Catholic reconquista" of French culture[12] there was also a programme of getting Catholics, particularly the clergy, to engage in wider scholarship rather than defensively retreating within the sphere of the church[13] as well as improving the scholarly standards of Catholic history writing.[14] However the Revue was overwhelmingly lay, with only three priests among the 35 most frequent contributors of the first decade.[15]

The rival Revue historique

[edit]

In direct reaction[16] Gabriel Monod set up Revue historique a decade later,[17] citing Revue des questions historiques as his inspiration[18] in the Revue Historique's first issue,[19] copying its format, structure and volume[20] while at the same time criticising its Catholicism.[18] There was an almost total lack of crossover of writers between the two journals which foreshadowed by 20 years the division of academics over the Dreyfus affair,[21] although the founder of Revue historique, Gustave Charles Fagniez did eventually write for the older journal after resigning from the journal he helped found due to its anti-clerical stances.[22] The Revue historique has been seen by some historians as being particularly republican and Protestant in its early years as a reaction.[16][8]

Some historians contend that this duel still persists after the demise of RQH with historiography accounts unwilling to concede the pioneering work of the Revue des questions historiques due to an ideological preference for the political stances of the Revue historiques.[3]

Outreach

[edit]

In 1867 a bibliographical society was founded as “an intellectual center where good people could gather,” in reaction to the secular Ligue de l'enseignement.[23] In 1868 the bibliographical society started publishing the popular monthly literary Revue de bibliographie universelle, better known as Polybiblion to reach out beyond the historical profession to the educated middle class[23] whose board had many common directors with the Revue.[24]

The Bibliographical society was responsible for the "Catholic Worker's Library" or the "25 Centime Library" which was an attempt to combat similar radical and protestant efforts[24] and finally there were four page tracts on various topics of which about two million had been distributed in the first two years.[24]

Historical Influence

[edit]

In 1867[25] the Vatican historian, Henri de l'Epinois, who was also on the editorial board of the Revue, used the Revue to publish the Roman inquisition's documents on the trials of Galileo.[26]

The journal is seen by some historians as a precursor to Action Française[27] and Victor Nguyen has shown[28] that the counter-revolutionary ideas of the young Charles Maurras were influenced in part by the Revue's article Le procès de la révolution française.[29]

Twentieth Century

[edit]

Later editors included Paul Allard[30] and Jean Guiraud.[31] It was seen as a platform for legitimist scholarship into the twentieth century.[32]

Publication was suspended in 1915 but it was relaunched in 1922[33] by the Action Française journalist and politician Roger Lambelin[34] and was published until 1939.[1] During the twentieth century it gradually changed from its original aristocratic and grassroots legitimism to being an intellectual journal for the activist and Orleanist Action Française.[35]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Larcher 1997.
  2. ^ Prévost 1992.
  3. ^ a b Carbonell 1976b, pp. 325–326.
  4. ^ "DU FRESNE DE BEAUCOURT Gaston Louis Emmanuel , marquis dit Gaston de Beaucourt". Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. l’École nationale des chartes.
  5. ^ Carbonell 1976b, p. 326.
  6. ^ Carbonell 1976b, p. 331.
  7. ^ a b Julia 2009, pp. Para 21.
  8. ^ a b Lukacs 1977.
  9. ^ Noronha-DiVanna 2010, p. 107.
  10. ^ Audren 2008.
  11. ^ Cabanel 1994, pp. 69, note 91.
  12. ^ den Boer 2011, pp. 193=195.
  13. ^ Carbonell 1976b, p. 334.
  14. ^ (de l’Épinois 1866, p. 56) cited in (Carbonell 1976b, pp. 335, note 37)
  15. ^ Carbonell 1976b, pp. 335–336.
  16. ^ a b Guilbaud 2014.
  17. ^ Noronha-DiVanna 2010, p. 111.
  18. ^ a b Monod 1876, p. 36.
  19. ^ Mucchielli 1995, p. 60.
  20. ^ Carbonell 1976a, p. 332.
  21. ^ Lukacs 1977, p. 158.
  22. ^ Carbonell 1976a, p. 348.
  23. ^ a b Carbonell 1976b, p. 336.
  24. ^ a b c Carbonell 1976b, p. 337.
  25. ^ de l’Épinois 1867.
  26. ^ Clerke 1911.
  27. ^ Carbonell 1976b, p. 329.
  28. ^ See Nguyen 1991, p. 371, as cited in Offenstadt 2014, para 19
  29. ^ Mazel 1886.
  30. ^ Healy 1913.
  31. ^ Grondeux 2014.
  32. ^ Corpet 1992 cited in Lancereau 2021
  33. ^ L. (October 1922). "Short Notices". The English Historical Review. 37 (148): 628a. doi:10.1093/ehr/XXXVII.CXLVIII.628-a. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
  34. ^ de Villiers 1929.
  35. ^ Wilson 1969, pp. 335–336.

Sources

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Revue_des_questions_historiques&oldid=1296086161"