PAPA consists of six different work packages that present thematic overlaps. We examine:
1) The birth and development of the Augustinian reform movement (often labelled “Jansenism”), a wide movement of religious reform that soon became a counter-power in France: How was it possible that, in France, a powerful religious movement developed that was considered subversive and became increasingly political? By examining the networks, the institutions and the patronage of courtiers, PhD student Nele Döring presents some answers to this crucial question of European history. In the long run, this movement had sweeping consequences: it led to the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, to the Josephin reforms in Habsburg lands and to the reforms of the Gallican Church in the French Revolution.
2) The factional game and the fate of pamphleteers during the Regency (1715-1723) and beyond: Who were pamphleteers? What were the factors for social advancement, stagnation, or decline? Why did Voltaire rise when some of his contemporaries failed? PhD student Miranda Kam retrieves forgotten figures and reinterprets the career of famous ones.
3) The birth of the first big oppositional party in France, the so-called first “Patriotic Party”: How could an opposition emerge towards the end of the reign of Louis XV? Postdoc Simon Dagenais explores the political impact of a prince of royal blood, the prince of Conti. In this way, he reinterprets political and intellectual history from the 1750s to the 1770s.
4) The patronage given to French Enlightenment philosophes: Principal Investigator (PI) Damien Tricoire shows how different kinds of protection by courtiers (both ministers and aristocrats) impacted intellectual history. He especially reconstructs the social conditions for the emergence of radical thought. Radical philosophy was not the product of frustrated outsiders, but of writers well integrated in powerful circles. Tricoire explains why aristocrats were interested in protecting radical philosophes and journalists.
5) The origins and beginnings of the French Revolution: PI Damien Tricoire and postdoc Benoît Carré provide the first in-depth study of oppositional movements before and at the beginning of the French Revolution. They write a new history of the “patriotic party” that introduced sweeping political changes in France, of the networks of actors, of their ideas, goals and motivations.
6) Exploring anonymous texts: Thanks to new methods of statistical analysis of text features (stylometry), PAPA also endeavours to uncover the authorship of a range of anonymous political texts. PI Damien Tricoire collaborates with postgraduate student Julian Csapó and PhD student Antonina Martynenko (Tartu) on this ambitious and risky venture.
