Gotowa bibliografia na temat „Samhedrin, (1807: Paris, France)”

Using large samples of estate tax returns, we construct new series on wealth concentration in Paris and France from 1807 to 1994. Inequality increased until 1914 because industrial and financial estates grew dramatically. Then, adverse shocks, rather than a Kuznets-type process, led to a massive decline in inequality. The very high wealth concentration prior to 1914 benefited retired individuals living off capital income (rentiers) rather than entrepreneurs. The very rich were in their seventies and eighties, whereas they had been in their fifties a half century earlier and would be so again after World War II. Our results shed new light on ongoing debates about wealth inequality and growth.

Children’s mental health problems were analyzed from a sociological approach addressing two questions: what are the main children’s behaviors identified and considered to be mental health problems, and what are the consequences of this classification for the debate on children’s problems in contemporary societies. This quantitative and qualitative study analyzed 275 patients’ records from two child mental health services (CMHS) in the northeast area of Paris, France. The majority of children were boys from six to 11 years old; requests were presented mainly by schools and parents; the main problems were behavioural problems, cognitive difficulties and relational problems (boys), and affective or emotional problems (girls). There is an interdependence of a great number of actors who worry about children’s behavior and a system of expectations seems to be collectively woven by them as social classifications.

L’échec de l’insurrection de Kosciuszko (1794) et le troisième partage de la Pologne, effectué une année plus tard par la Russie, l’Autriche et la Prusse, provoquèrent l’émigration des dirigeants de l’insurrection et de militaires polonais. Paris devint alors le centre d’attraction d’une grande majorité de ces émigrés qui, divisés en factions, se disputèrent les faveurs du Directoire. La majorité rêvait d’une force militaire capable de recommencer la lutte pour l’indépendance. Les légions polonaises au service de la France (1797-1807) marquèrent le commencement du phénomène de service massif des soldats polonais sous les drapeaux étrangers.

Entre 1807 et 1811 le Portugal fut trois fois envahi par les armées de Napoléon, mais le départ de la famille royale pour le Brésil réussit à maintenir la souveraineté du pays. Avec l’aide de l’armée anglaise, commandée par le duc de Wellington, les Portugais réussirent à ne pas permettre le contrôle total du territoire métropolitain par les troupes napoléoniennes et ont même participé à l’invasion de la France, en 1814. De ce fait, et même contre la volonté anglaise, le Portugal, qui fut un des signataires du traité de Paris, fut présent au congrès de Vienne. Curieusement le pays, qui était considéré comme une petite puissance, et avec le siège du gouvernement à Rio de Janeiro, envoya trois représentants à cette réunion internationale, ce qui pour Talleyrand fut d’une très grande utilité, car cela l’aida à renforcer les positions françaises dans les négociations. À Vienne, le Portugal voulait surtout discuter quatre problèmes : la frontière nord du Brésil avec la Guyane, la non-abolition de la traite des esclaves, la dévolution par l’Espagne du village d’Olivença, occupé en 1801, et l’annulation du traité anglo-portugais de 1810.

Cet article souligne le rôle Jean-Baptiste Beurard dans l’histoire de la paléoichtyologie. Ancien chanoine de la cathédrale de Toul, il trouva après les affres des débuts de la Révolution un emploi d’agent du gouvernement attaché à l’administration des mines entre 1794 et 1815. Chargé de la surveillance des mines de mercure dans les nouveaux départements annexés par la France sur la rive gauche du Rhin, il redécouvrit en juillet 1799 le fameux gisement d’« ichtyolites » (poissons fossiles) imprégnés de cinabre de Münsterappel daté du Permien inférieur. Il envoya plusieurs spécimens dans des collections institutionnelles parisiennes. Des représentants de l’espèce Paramblypterus duvernoy (Agassiz, 1833) (Actinopterygii, Amblypteridae), probablement envoyés par Beurard avant 1809 d’après le témoignage de Barthélémy Faujas de Saint-Fond, ont été identifiés dans les collections du Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Un autre spécimen ayant appartenu de manière incontestable à Beurard est conservé dans les collections Géosciences de Sorbonne Université et revêt un intérêt historique tout particulier. Beurard possédait également dans sa collection deux échantillons de poissons fossiles du Cénomanien de Haqel dans l’actuel Liban, qu’il avait reçu de son neveu Claude Charles Harmand (1784–1847), officier de marine, en 1817. À partir d’eux, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville décrivit deux espèces qu’il nomma Clupea beurardi Blainville, 1818a et Clupea brevissima Blainville, 1818a. La première n’est plus considérée comme valide et la seconde est aujourd’hui assignée au genre Armigatus Grande, 1982 (Actinopterygii, Clupeomorpha) dont elle est l’espèce type. Un de ces spécimens est conservé au Natural History Museum, Londres, et provient de la collection de William Willoughby Cole (1807–1886), comte d’Enniskillen, qui avait acquis une partie de la collection Beurard. Étiqueté par erreur Clupea beurardi par Beurard, cet échantillon porte en réalité les quatre syntypes d’Armigatus brevissimus. Un lectotype est désigné ici pour fixer le statut de cette espèce, certainement la plus abondante et la plus iconique du gisement de Haqel.

AbstractAry Scheffer (1795-1858) is so generally included in the French School (Note 2)- unsurprisingly, since his career was confined almost entirely to Paris - that the fact that he was born and partly trained in the Netherlands is often overlooked. Yet throughout his life he kept in touch with Dutch colleagues and drew part of his inspiration from Dutch traditions. These Dutch aspects are the subject of this article. The Amsterdam City Academy, 1806-9 Ary Scheffer was enrolled at the Amsterdam Academy on 25 October 1806, his parents falsifying his date of birth in order to get him admitted at the age of eleven (fifteen was the oficial age) . He started in the third class and in order to qualify for the second he had to be one of the winners in the prize drawing contest. Candidates in this were required to submit six drawings made during the months January to March. Although no-one was supposed to enter until he had been at the Academy for four years, Ary Scheffer competed in both 1808 and 1809. Some of his signed drawings are preserved in Dordrecht. (Figs. 1-5 and 7), along with others not made for the contest. These last in particular are interesting not only because they reveal his first prowess, but also because they give some idea of the Academy practice of his day. Although the training at the Academy broadly followed the same lines as that customary in France, Italy and elsewhere (Note 4), our knowledge of its precise content is very patchy, since there was no set curriculum and no separate teachers for each subject. Two of Scheffer's drawings (Figs. 2 and 3) contain extensive notes, which amount to a more or less complete doctrine of proportion. It is not known who his teacher was or what sources were used, but the proportions do not agree with those in Van der Passe's handbook, which came into vogue in the 18th century, or with those of the canon of a Leonardo, Dürer or Lebrun. One gets the impression that what are given here are the exact measurements of a concrete example. Scheffer's drawings show him gradually mastering the rudiments of art. In earlier examples the hatching is sometimes too hasty (Fig. 4) or too rigidly parallel (Fig.5), while his knowledge of anatomy is still inadequate and his observation not careful enough. But right from the start he shows flair and as early as 1807 he made a clever drawing of a relatively complex group (Fig. 6) , while the difficult figure of Marsyas was already well captured in 1808 and clearly evinces his growing knowledge o f anatomy, proportion , foreshortening and the effects of light (Fig. 7). The same development can be observed in his portrait drawings. That of Gerardus Vrolik (1775-1859, Fig.8), a professor at the Atheneum Illustre (the future university) and Scheffer' s teacher, with whom he always kept in touch (Note 6), is still not entirely convincing, but a portrait of 1809, thought to be of his mother (Fig.9, Note 7), shows him working much more systematically. It is not known when he left the Academy, but from the summer of 1809 we find him in France, where he was to live with only a few breaks from 1811 to his death. The first paintings and the Amsterdam exhibitions of 1808 and 1810 Ary Scheffer's earliest known history painting, Hannibal Swearing to Avenge his Brother Hasdrubal's Death (Fig. 10) Notes 8-10) was shown at the first exhibition of living masters in Amsterdam in 1808. Although there was every reason for giving this subject a Neo-Classical treatment, the chiaroscuro, earthy colours and free brushwork show Scheffer opting for the old Dutch tradition rather than the modern French style. This was doubtless on the prompting of his parents,for a comment in a letter from his mother in 1810 (Note 12) indicates that she shared the reservations of the Dutch in general about French Neo-Classicism. (Note 11). As the work of a twelve to thirteen year old, the painting naturally leaves something to be desired: the composition is too crowded and unbalanced and the anatomy of the secondary figures rudimentary. In a watercolour Scheffer made of the same subject, probably in the 1820's, he introduced much more space between the figures (Fig. 11, Note 13). Two portraits are known from this early period. The first, of Johanna Maria Verbeek (Fig. 12, Note 14), was done when the two youngsters were aged twelve. It again shows all the characteristics of an early work, being schematic in its simplicity, with some rather awkward details and inadequate plasticity. On the other hand the hair and earrings are fluently rendered, the colours harmonious and the picture has an undeniable charm. At the second exhibition of works by living masters in 1810, Ary Scheffer showed a 'portrait of a painter' (Fig. 13), who was undoubtedly his uncle Arnoldus Lamme, who also had work in the exhibition as did Scheffer's recently deceased father Johan-Bernard and his mother Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme, an indication of the stimulating surroundings in which he grew up. The work attracted general attention (Note 16) and it does, indeed, show a remarkable amount of progress, the plasticity, effects of light, brushwork and colour all revealing skill and care in their execution. The simple, bourgeois character of the portrait not only fits in with the Dutch tradition which Scheffer had learned from both his parents in Amsterdam, but also has points in common with the recent developments in France, which he could have got to know during his spell in Lille from autumn 1809 onwards. A Dutchman in Paris Empire and Restoration, 1811-30 In Amsterdam Scheffer had also been laught by his mother, a miniature painter, and his father, a portrait and history painter (Note 17). After his father's death in June 1809, his mother, who not only had a great influence on his artistic career, but also gave his Calvinism and a great love of literature (Note 18), wanted him to finish his training in Paris. After getting the promise of a royal grant from Louis Napoleon for this (Note 19) and while waiting for it to materialize, she sent the boy to Lille to perfect his French as well as further his artistic training. In 1811 Scheffer settled in Paris without a royal grant or any hope of one. He may possibly have studied for a short time under Prudhon (Note 20) , but in the autumn of 1811 he was officially contracted as a pupil of Guérin, one of the leading artists of the school of David, under whom he mastered the formulas of NeD-Classicism, witness his Orpheus and Eurydice (Fïg.14), shown in the Salon of 1814. During his first ten years in Paris Scheffer also painted many genre pieces in order, so he said, to earn a living for himself and his mother. Guérin's prophecy that he would make a great career as a history painter (Note 21) soon came true, but not in the way Guérin thought it would, Scheffer participating in the revolution initiated by his friends and fellow-pupils, Géricault and Delacroix, which resulted in the rise of the Romantic Movement. It was not very difficult for him to break with Neo-Classicism, for with his Dutch background he felt no great affinity with it (Note 22). This development is ilustrated by his Gaston de Foix Dying on the Battlefield After his Victory at Ravenna, shown at the Salon of 1824, and The Women of Souli Throwing Themselves into the Abyss (Fig.15), shown at that of 1827-8. The last years of the Restoration and the July Monarchy. Influence of Rembrandt and the Dutch masters In 1829, when he seemed to have become completely assimilated in France and had won wide renown, Scheffer took the remarkable step of returning to the Netherlands to study the methods of Rembrandt and other Dutch old masters (Note 23) . A new orientation in his work is already apparent in the Women of Souli, which is more harmonious and considered in colour than the Gaston dc Foix (Note 24). This is linked on the one hand to developments in France, where numbers of young painters had abandoned extreme Romanticism to find the 'juste milieu', and on the other to Scheffer's Dutch background. Dutch critics were just as wary of French Romanticism as they had been of Neo-Classicism, urging their own painters to revive the traditions of the Golden Age and praising the French painters of the 'juste milieu'. It is notable how many critics commented on the influence of Rembrandt on Scheffer's works, e.g. his Faust, Marguérite, Tempête and portrait of Talleyrand at the Salon of 1851 (Note 26). The last two of these date from 1828 and show that the reorientation and the interest in Rembrandt predate and were the reasons for the return to the Netherlands in 1829. In 1834 Gustave Planche called Le Larmoyeur (Fig. 16) a pastiche of Rembrandt and A. Barbier made a comparable comment on Le Roi de Thule in 1839 (Note 27). However, as Paul Mantz already noted in 1850 (Note 28), Scheffer certainly did not fully adopt Rembrandt's relief and mystic light. His approach was rather an eclectic one and he also often imbued his work with a characteristically 19th-century melancholy. He himself wrote after another visit to the Netherlands in 1849 that he felt he had touched a chord which others had not attempted (Note 29) . Contacts with Dutch artists and writers Scheffer's links with the Netherlands come out equally or even more strongly in the many contacts he maintained there. As early as 1811-12 Sminck-Pitloo visited him on his way to Rome (Note 30), to be followed in the 1820's by J.C. Schotel (Note 31), while after 1830 as his fame increased, so the contacts also became more numerous. He was sought after by and corresponded with various art dealers (Note 33) and also a large number of Dutch painters, who visited him in Paris or came to study under him (Note 32) Numerous poems were published on paintings by him from 1838 onwards, while Jan Wap and Alexander Ver Huell wrote at length about their visits to him (Note 34) and a 'Scheffer Album' was compiled in 1859. Thus he clearly played a significant role in the artistic life of the Netherlands. International orientation As the son of a Dutch mother and a German father, Scheffer had an international orientation right from the start. Contemporary critics and later writers have pointed out the influences from English portrait painting and German religious painting detectable in his work (Note 35). Extracts from various unpublished letters quoted here reveal how acutely aware he was of what was likely to go down well not only in the Netherlands, but also in a country like England, where he enjoyed great fame (Notes 36-9) . July Monarchy and Second Empire. The last decades While most French artists of his generation seemed to have found their definitive style under the July Monarchy, Scheffer continued to search for new forms of expression. In the 1830's, at the same time as he painted his Rembrandtesque works, he also produced his famous Francesca da Rimini (Fig. 17), which is closer to the 'juste milieu' in its dark colours and linear accents. In the 1840's he used a simple and mainly bright palette without any picturesque effects, e.g. in his SS. Augustine and Monica and The Sorrows of the Earth (Note 41), but even this was not his last word. In an incident that must have occurred around 1857 he cried out on coming across some of his earlier works that he had made a mistake since then and wasted his time (Note 42) and in his Calvin of 1858 (Fig. 18) he resumed his former soft chiaroscuro and warm tones. It is characteristic of him that in that same year he painted a last version of The Sorrows of the Earth in the light palette of the 1840's. Despite the difficulty involved in the precise assessment of influences on a painter with such a complex background, it is clear that even in his later period, when his work scored its greatest successes in France, England and Germany, Scheffer always had a strong bond with the Netherlands and that he not only contributed to the artistic life there, but always retained a feeling for the traditions of his first fatherland. Appendix An appendix is devoted to a study of the head of an old man in Dordrecht, which is catalogued as a copy of a 17th-century painting in the style of Rembrandt done by Ary Scheffer at the age of twelve (Fig.19, Note 43). This cannot be correct, as it is much better than the other works by the twelve-year-old painter. Moreover, no mention is made of it in the catalogue of the retrospective exhibition held in Paris in 1859, where the Hannibal is given as his earliest work (Note 44). It was clearly unknown then, as it is not mentioned in any of the obituaries of 1858 and 1859 either. The earliest reference to it occurs in the list made bv Scheffer's daughter in 1897 of the works she was to bequeath to the Dordrecht museum. A clue to its identification may be a closely similar drawing by Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme (Fig. 20, Note 46), which is probably a copy after the head of the old man. She is known to have made copies after contemporary and 17th-century masters. The portrait might thus be attributable to Johan-Bernard Scheffer, for his wife often made copies of his works and he is known from sale catalogues to have painted various portraits of old men (Note 47, cf. Fig.21). Ary Scheffer also knew this. In 1839 his uncle Arnoldus Lamme wrote to him that he would look out for such a work at a sale (Note 48). It may be that he succeeded in finding one and that this portrait came into the possession of the Scheffer family in that way, but Johan-Bernard's work is too little known for us to be certain about this.

RESUMENLa sociedad gallega del Antiguo Régimen fue esencialmente conflictiva, hecho que ha sido probado en numerosas publicaciones en los últimos años. El presente artículo trata de analizar una parte de esta realidad social a través de los litigios que la Real Audiencia de Galicia atendió por razón de servidumbres, las cuales podían ser, según el elemento al que se refiriesen, de paso, de agua y de luces y ventanas. Estas figuras jurídicas redistribuían derechos y deberes al margen de la propiedad privada, por lo que aunque su fundamento no se discutía, como habitualmente ocurrió, sí se discutió la forma en que debían establecerse.PALABRAS CLAVE: Edad Moderna, conflictividad social, servidumbre de paso, servidumbre de agua, servidumbre de luces y ventanas.ABSTRACTGalician society during Early Modern History was essentially conflictive, as many studies have demonstrated in recent years. This paper seeks to analyse a part of this social reality through the litigation that the Royal Court of Galicia considered by reason of easements, which could be, according to the element to which they refer, on rights of way, water, lights and windows. These legal instruments redistributed rights and duties beyond private property, so if their basis was not generally discussed, there was debate over how they should be established.KEYWORDS: Early Modern History, social conflict, access easement, water easement, light and air easement. BIBLIOGRAFÍAAlegre Maceira, C., Dar e concordar no Ulla no século XVIII, A Coruña, Diputación provincial de A Coruña, 2009.Bouhier, A., La Galice: essai geographique d’analyse et d’interpretation d’un vieux complexe agraire, La Roche-sur-Yon, 1979.Candal González, X. M., “Pleitos de aguas en la audiencia coruñesa durante el siglo XVIII”, Obradoiro de Historia Moderna, 2 (1993), pp. 85-103.Cardesín, J. M., Tierra, trabajo y reproducción social en una aldea gallega (s. XVIII – XX): muerte de unos, vida de otros, Madrid, Ministerio de Agricultura, 1992.Castro Redondo, R., La conflictividad vecinal en la Galicia de fines del Antiguo Régimen: los conflictos por medidas y límites (Tesis Doctoral Inédita), Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2016.Fernández Vega, L., La Real Audiencia de Galicia, órgano de gobierno en el Antiguo Régimen, A Coruña, Diputación de A Coruña, 1982.González Fernández, X. M., Bouzas y otros juzgados gallegos del siglo XVIII: la conflictividad judicial ordinaria en la Galicia atlántica (1670-1820), Vigo, Instituto de Estudios Vigueses, 1997.Goubert, P., Beauvais et le Beauvaisis de 1600 á 1730 : contribution á l’histoire sociale de la France du XVIIe siècle, París, l’École des Hautes Études, 1960.Herbella de Puga, B., Derecho práctico i estilos de la Real Audiencia de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Imprenta de Ignacio Aguayo, 1768.Iglesias Estepa, R., “La conflictividad ‘sorda’: un estudio sobre la criminalidad a finales del Antiguo Régimen”, Obradoiro de Historia Moderna, 10 (2001), p. 247-273.Jacquart, J., La crise rurale en Île-de-France, 1550-1670, Paris, A. Colin, 1974.Kagan, R., Pleitos y pleiteantes en Castilla (1500-1700), Junta de Castilla y León: Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 1991.Las Siete Partidas del Rey don Alfonso el Sabio, cotejadas con varios códices antiguos por la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1807.López Gómez, P., La Real Audiencia de Galicia y el Archivo del Reino, Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, 1996.Mantecón Movellán, T. A., Conflictividad y disciplinamiento social en la Cantabria rural del Antiguo Régimen, Santander, Universidad de Cantabria, 1997.Ortego Gil, P., “La fuente limpia de la justicia: la Real Audiencia de Galicia”, en Die Höchstgerichtsbarkeit im ZeitalterKarls V: Eine vergleichende Betrachtung, Baden Baden, Nomos, 2011, pp. 177-264.Pacheco, F. L., Las servidumbres pradiales en el derecho histórico español, Lleida, Pagès Editors, 1991.Pacheco, F. L., “Fueros y Partidas: algunas páginas más sobre servidumbres”, Initium: Revista catalana d’historia del dret, 6, 2001, pp. 285-305.Pérez García, J. M., “Entre regar y no regar: la intensa disputa por unos recursos hídricos colectivos escasos en la Galicia meridional (1600-1850)”, en F. J. ArandaPérez (coord.), El mundo rural en la España moderna, Cuenca, Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, 2004, pp. 555-572.Rey Castelao, O., Montes y política forestal en la Galicia del Antiguo Régimen, Santiago de Compostela, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 1995.Rey Castelao, O., “La lucha por el agua en el país de la lluvia (Galicia, siglos XVI-XIX)”, Vínculos de Historia, 1 (2012), pp. 45-72.Saavedra Fernández, P., “El agua en el sistema agropecuario de Galicia”, en A. Marcos Martín (coord.), Agua y sociedad en la época moderna, Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, Instituto Universitario Simancas, 2009, pp. 49-72.Saavedra Fernández, P., “Servidumbres y limitaciones de dominio en el sistema agropecuario de Galicia”, en Historia de la propiedad: servidumbres y limitaciones de dominio, Madrid, Servicio de Estudios del Colegio de Registradores, 2009, pp. 351-388.Torijano Pérez, E., “El agua como bien privativo (de las Partidas al Código Civil)”, en A. Marcos Martín (coord.), Agua y sociedad en la época moderna, Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 2009, pp. 73-86.

AbstractThis article deals with the proposal to edit in French the Geoponica, issued by François de Neufchâteau in 1807, when he was president of the Society of Agriculture of Paris, in a document which I found in the National Library in France. This proposition, based on the Greek manuscript attributed to Constantine VII, would be a major scientific and editorial achievement, but it would also entail political issues, as it would respond to the dynastic evolution of the Napoleonic régime. This interest in Byzantine literature is uncommon but can be linked to the growing interest in the Orient and its past, which is an important aspect of the French imperial society under Napoléon. Those elements reveal the historical and scientific implications of such a proposition to edit a Byzantine text, a proposition that would remain unsuccessful, however.

This dissertation presents a new perspective on the function of objects in late-medieval devotional practice through a study of the so-called Soissons group of thirteenth-century French Gothic ivories. These ivory diptychs were sophisticated tools constructed to guide the user through various spiritual exercises that led to prayer. The hitherto unexplained increase in the availability of ivory in mid-thirteenth-century France is accounted for by an alteration in the trade routes that brought elephant tusks from the Swahili coast of Africa to northern Europe: a newly-opened passage through the Straits of Gibraltar allowed a small amount of luxury goods to be shipped together with bulk materials necessary to the northern textile industries. The increasing supply required a revision of the structure of the thirteenth-century craft of ivory. The Soissons group, the first ivory diptychs fashioned during this time of growth in ivory markets, is subdivided into two sections. An itinerant master who traveled throughout the Picard region between 1235 and 1270 crafted the first group. Concurrently, three separate Parisian artists produced the second group based on a Picard model. This dissertation redates all the ivories substantially earlier than previously thought, conclusions which were attained through stylistic analysis. The dense Passion iconography shaped the diptychs’ function in private devotion. The narrative encouraged the viewer to practice a number of spiritual exercises—reading, memorization and compunction—analogous to the three reasons for allowing images in the Christian Church, the triplex ratio. The Passion diptych format introduced with these objects was immensely popular throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and its conservation over time underscored its effectiveness. The small differences in iconography and composition among the seven Soissons diptychs, however, were subtle modifications to adjust to different audiences and to hone the objects’ efficacy as tools for prayer.

Abstract The dominant state of Germany in the mid-1800s was Prussia, which had risen to prominence mainly through its military. Ever since their defeat at the hands of Napoleon in 1806-1807 the Prussian military had dedicated itself to becoming the best in the world, both to return to the glory days of Frederick the Great and to assure that no such embarrassment as that at the hands of the French was ever repeated. They developed the world’s first General Staff, promoting excellence in all phases of military activiry. The system proved itself in 1866, when Prussia easily defeated Austria in a border dispute; that war seemed almost a tune-up for a return match with France. Under the leadership of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia gathered the lesser German states around her in a North German Confederation and aimed toward the unification of all Germanic principalities into one state. A war with France would serve as a focus for German nationalism. In France, Napoleon III had reigned as head of state since the Revolution of 1848. The Second Empire was a shadow of the First Empire established by Napoleon Bonaparte, but France hoped to maintain a major role in world affairs, even if she could not reach the heights of grandeur of the start of the nineteenth century. During the war between Prussia and Austria, Napoleon had given Prussia tacit support in return for generalized promises of reward. France had hoped to gain border lands along the western Thine after that war, but Bismarck refused to cede any such territory to non-Germans. He then stood in the way of a proposed French purchase of Luxembourg from Holland. When Napoleon hoped to expand at Belgium’s expense via heavy French investment in that country’s rail system, Bismarck reminded England of possible French control of the Channel coast and English opposition halted French aims. An argument over which country should provide a new monarch for the Spanish throne proved the last straw. Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck manipulated negotiations between the French ambassador and Prussia’s King Wilhelm I in such a way that the king appeared to have insulted France. That provoked French public opinion to the point of war and Napoleon, frustrated by Prussia at every turn, complied.

Gall and Spurzheim arrived in Paris during October 1807, while the Napoleonic Wars were still raging and where Napoleon Bonaparte was reshaping every aspect of society. Napoleon despised foreigners and considered Gall’s doctrine absurd. He urged Georges Cuvier, one of his appointed guardians of French science, to reject it. Nonetheless, Gall made inroads, giving public lectures and demonstrations on his organologie that were well received, while seeing patients to support himself. Encouraged by these ventures, he and Spurzheim wrote a Mémoire and submitted it to the Institut National in 1808. Cuvier, who headed the evaluating committee and was being guided by Napoleon, rejected it as unoriginal and unsuitable for the division for Sciences Mathématiques et Physiques, even though the subject matter was basic anatomy and not more controversial organologie. Gall was furious and sent letters expressing his disappointment to Cuvier, but to no avail. Consequently, he published a book covering the submission, the rejection, and his retorts. And rather than leaving France, he opted to continue his lecturing and medical practice in the city with many amenities, and he continued to work on a series of volumes he was already calling his “great work.”