Theses Year : 2017

Fors and Reforms : the parisian prison of the eighteenth century

Formes et réformes : la prison parisienne au XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

We know very little about the Parisian prison of the XVIIIth century. Historians have been fascinated by the XIXth century penitentiary but they have largely neglected the Ancien Régime prison. The period was not entirely ignored, of course: it sees the birth of Beccaria's writings which question the relevance of physical punishment and set in motion the penal reform. It's also the time of the Grand Renfermement of paupers and asocials, of which the Hôpital général and the dépôt de mendicité are the clearest incarnations. However, the prison, which was an integral part of the judicial procedure, was discarded. The present research aims to fill a part of this gap by exploring the world of prepenal prison in XVIIIth century Paris. Far from forming an isolated object, this Ancien Régime j