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231 - ROLAND (JEANNE-MARIE PHILIPON, MADAME). [JOURNEY TO SWITZERL…
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Estimate €2,000 - €3,000
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ROLAND (JEANNE-MARIE PHILIPON, MADAME). [JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND] Autograph fragment. [1787]. 4 pp. in-12, dampstaining, traces of tab and glue on last page. PASSAGE FROM THE FIRST DRAFT MANUSCRIT OF HIS JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, which would be partially published, in a different order and with variants, in his Œuvres parues en l'an VIII [1799-1800] à Paris chez Bidault (vol. III, pp. 311-315). It relates more specifically to the canton of Bern, which was then larger than it is today, and still included territories such as the future cantons of Aargau and Vaud. Madame Roland recorded her observations on customs (costumes, festivals, etc.), politics, the arts and literature, and paid particular attention to the status of women and social relations. " ... The people are not trodden underfoot; the farmer is well-to-do, often rich; but he nonetheless remains in his state, and the man who gives his daughter 50,000 livres marries her to the valet he esteems most, or whom she loves most... POLITICS OCCUPIED ALL MINDS; or rather the ambition to be something in the government kept them on their toes. Every bourgeois is eligible, but a small number of distinguished families invade the seats and the calculations and intrigue to get there torment all the others from generation to generation. Alliances are made with this in mind; the bourgeois who is rich but has no title and no credit seeks to marry his daughter into a senator's family, or collects on his son a fortune capable of earning him the hand of a distinguished girl who will earn him the hat. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO ENSURE THE HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGES, NOR IS IT COMMON, BUT IT IS REPLACED BY A GREAT RECIPROCAL FREEDOM, and customs remain for the benefit of country people. For all the burghers are from Berne and no one other than them may own a house or carry on any profession there. The population of this town is therefore barely twelve thousand souls, and it will be necessary to finally grant the right of bourgeoisie...". ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REVOLUTION, MADAME ROLAND played an eminent role alongside her husband Jean-Marie Roland de La Platière, who was Minister of the Interior (1792-1793): she ran a political salon frequented by the Girondins, and was guillotined in 1793.
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About the sale The Empire at Fontainebleau - Second day
Auction location
Auction time 06/21/2026 at 10:30 AM
Pictures credits:
Michel Bury and Henri du Cray
See original version (French)
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