This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
As the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the bourgeoisie took up a variety of arms against the aristocracy; among them was literature. Pictured here from the Santo Domingo Collection is La Messaline françoise, a libelous account, published under an obviously false imprint, of the sexual exploits of the “duch… de Pol…”: a contemporary reader would understand this to be Yolande-Martine-Gabrielle de Polastron, the Duchess of Polignac. (The title refers to Valeria Messalina, wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, and another woman in power against whom accusations of promiscuity were levied.)
Gabrielle was an intimate friend and companion to Marie-Antoinette and a renowned beauty. Although descended from a noble family, Gabrielle’s family was in poor financial straits; however, the Queen so favored her that she settled her debts, endowed her with money and lodgings, and eventually named her husband a duke. Gabrielle developed a reputation, likely exaggerated, for extravagant consumption and exclusivity. Resentment from both the public and the rest of the court attended her favor with the Queen, and took form in scandalous works like this one.
Many such books and pamphlets suggested that Gabrielle and the Queen were lesbian lovers; La Messaline françoise instead recounts an affair between Gabrielle and the Princesse d’Hénin, another courtly figure. Much of the volume is taken up with lewd descriptions of their lovemaking, but the text also takes time to recount the Duchess’s precipitous rise from destitution to courtly wealth, a transition sure to kindle indignation in the hearts of indigent readers. The frontispiece depicts the lovers behind a conveniently-placed shrubbery in the forest park of Versailles.
Bound together with La Messaline françoise is another of the many libelous works directed against Marie-Antoinette and her entourage. Titled Correspondance de la reine avec d’illustres personnages, it takes the form of letters written by Marie-Antoinette to various recipients rather than a personal account. The volume of two works, bound in modern red morocco, comes from Gérard Nordmann’s collection of erotic literature.
La Messaline françoise / Correspondance de la reine avec d’illustres personnages, FC7.A100.789m2.
Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.