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Description
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The diary of François Henry Silvestre Saint-Romme (1796–1862), a young lawyer from Grenoble
Manuscript, May–June 1825, paperback, period cardboard binding, 27 x 21.5 cm, 89 pp.
An unpublished diary written by François Henry Silvestre Saint-Romme, a young lawyer from Grenoble, during his stay in Paris and his journey to Germany.
François-Henry Silvestre Saint-Romme was born in Roybon on 11 September 1796 and was educated at the Collège de Tournon, before studying law at the Faculty of Law in Grenoble. He then went to Paris where, as a trainee lawyer, he came into contact with prominent figures from the legal profession and the world of politics. It was in this way that he successively met Jules Favre, Carnot, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, Jean Reynaud, Lacordaire and Lamennais. He then contributed to the newspaper *Le Droit*, of which Ledru-Rollin was editor.
In May 1825, he set off accompanied by two of his friends, Jean Reynaud (1806–1863), a philosopher, and Alexandre Crépu (1796–1862), curator of the Natural History Museum in Grenoble, on a journey through German-speaking Switzerland, the Tyrol and Germany. After a fairly lengthy stay in Berlin, where he had gone to learn German, he returned to Grenoble, where he practised as a lawyer.
Following the Revolution of 1830, he served as a delegate to the Government, was subsequently elected a general councillor, and in 1848 became a representative of the People and an anti-Bonapartist Republican Member of Parliament.
During his stay in Paris, he attended the 7th Annual General Meeting of the Protestant Bible Society held on 13 April 1825, chaired by the Marquis François-Arnail de Jaucourt, surrounded by the leading figures of French Protestantism of the time, a mix of the high nobility, influential bankers and renowned pastors, such as Count Boissy d’Anglas, the banker Baron de Schickler, the banker Baron Benjamin Delessert, François Guizot, Auguste de Staël (son of Madame de Staël), the Monod brothers, and so on.
He also reports on the meetings held by the Women’s Committee and the Workers’ Bible Society. On 15 April, he attended the annual meeting of the Christian Moral Society.
His reflections also covered the Quakers – as he was a close friend of the famous physician Thomas Hodgkin – as well as actors and moralist writers.
After visiting Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s grave in Ermenonville – which had, unfortunately, been defaced with graffiti – he set off for Germany on a study trip during which he discovered the German appreciation for music, the architecture of palaces and idyllic villages. He was also commissioned by a merchant from Grenoble to meet with German traders in order to collect payment for letters of credit issued to the young lawyer. In mid-June, he was received by the poet Franz von Elshotz, who welcomed him warmly and kindly. The manuscript concludes with various reflections on the rights of peoples and the right of intervention.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
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