Addendum to a Tribute to Jacqueline Hecht (1932–2020) About the Printing in Versailles of Quesnay’s Tableau économique

ADDENDUM TO A TRIBUTE
TO JACQUELINE HECHT (1932–2020)

About the Printing in Versailles
of Quesnay’s Tableau économique

Gabriel Sabbagh1

Université Paris Diderot

The question of the printing in Versailles of some of Quesnay’s publications, and notably of two versions of his Tableau économique, has been debated for many years. The claim that the Tableau had been printed in Versailles, with the explicit or implicit approval of the king, was already published when Quesnay was alive and mainly concerned with political economy.2 Quite recently, two papers discussed the topic: one, Sabbagh (2022), established that a rare paper of Quesnay was indeed printed in Versailles and conjectured that the second and third versions of the Tableau had also been printed there, another, Charles and Théré (2023), provided a proof that the third version of the Tableau had been printed there.

I will leave to others the task of scrutinizing these alleged or real proofs: the first one rests on a contemporary testimony which may be erroneous, the second one on an argument about a single printing ornament; this is an area unfamiliar to most historians, including myself. I intend here to call attention to a statement, probably written around 1760-1764, which apparently guarantees that the third version of the Tableau was printed in Versailles. This yields a proof similar to the first one.

I am indebted to Mr. Ian M. Smith and to the antiquarian firm Peter Harrington in London for having sent me some xeroxes of a copy of an interesting volume having belonged to Maynon d’Invault. Maynon d’Invault replaced L’Averdy as minister of finances in 1768,3 and had to resign in December 1769.4 The volume owned by Peter Harrington has the arms of Maynon on the spine and unites the quarto (first edition) printed edition of the Philosophie rurale, published in 1763, and a contemporary (handwritten) copy of the third version of the Tableau. What is remarkable is a note written at the time, on the title of the Tableau, and found at the end of this paper: ‘Imprimé dans le chateau de Versailles avec des caractères de l’Imprimerie Roiale que l’on fit venir exprès’.5 This gives the information that the Tableau was indeed printed in Versailles with type provided by the Royal Printing House.6

The above argument has three remarkable features:

1. It could have been made in 1987: indeed the sale of the books of the economist Pierre Quesnay (1895-1937) who accumulated an outstanding Physiocratic collection took place on 25 June 1987. The copy now owned by Peter Harrington was lot 150 of the auction. All those who viewed the books of the auction could have noticed the handwritten note. Of course Pierre Quesnay himself had the opportunity of making the discovery here reported. It is very likely that Jacqueline Hecht had seen this copy, in 1987 or before.7 This is another reason to regret that her notes to her life of Quesnay were not published and are apparently lost, cf. Sabbagh (2022).

2. It confirms that Maynon d’Invault was so close to Quesnay that he had access to the third version of the Tableau. Of course, it is impossible to know whether the volume I have described was a 25gift from Quesnay to Maynon, specially composed for the latter, or whether Maynon or his librarian assembled the volume. The physiocratic convictions of Maynon were previously known, but not, to the best of my knowledge, the fact that he owned a copy of the Tableau.

3. It confirms that manuscript copies of the third version of the Tableau circulated at the time. This is certainly not surprising, but I cannot remember having seen another contemporary manuscript copy. Maynon’s copy probably survived because it was handsomely bound with a copy of Philosophie rurale, a thick work which was not discarded by its owners.

I will conclude with trying to answer an obvious question: when did Maynon obtain the volume? I would suggest that the likeliest date is 1763 or 1764, right after the publication of the quarto (first edition) of Philosophie rurale: either he purchased that book, and this probably took place right after its publication, or the volume was gifted to him. The physiocrats confessed themselves the printing (and computation) errors and misprints of the first edition which they disowned.8 Had Maynon been gifted the volume when he succeeded L’Averdy in 1768, he would have probably received the corrected 1764 edition and the present would have been more sumptuously bound.

REFERENCES

Charles, Loïc & Théré, Christine [2023], « A note on the early versions of the Tableau économique », HOPE, vol. 55, no 1, p. 145-172.

Du Pont, Pierre-Samuel & Quesnay, François [1768-1767], Physiocratie, Leyde et Paris, Merlin.

Félix, Joël [1999], Finances et politique au siècle des Lumières, Paris, Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France.

Mirabeau, Victor Riqueti, marquis de [1767], Éléments de la philosophie rurale, La Haye, Libraires associés.

Mirabeau, Victor Riqueti, marquis de & Quesnay, François [1763], Philosophie rurale, Amsterdam (i.e. Paris), Libraires associés.

Sabbagh, Gabriel[2022], « La réaction de Mirabeau (et Quesnay) au scandale de De l’Esprit et la rupture de Quesnay avec l’Encyclopédie (compléments à “La vie de François Quesnay” de Jacqueline Hecht) », Revue d’histoire de la pensée économique, vol. 13, p. 23-55.

Fig. 1 – The firm of Peter Harrington, antiquarian booksellers, London, UK.