Maral, Alexandre Versailles

Des Origines à nos Jours

This new project on Versailles aims to continue Pierre Verlet's monograph, Le Château de Versailles, published by Fayard in 1961 and reissued in 1985. This exemplary work of scholarship has established itself as a reference work on the residence of the Ancien Régime, which is analysed in minute detail. Verlet's text thus makes it possible to retrace the stages of the construction of Versailles and its design, but also provides useful details about the use of the premises and their development up to the Revolution. The dense text is illustrated with plans that allow the reader to find their way around the palace. Since 1985, the date of a landmark colloquium devoted exclusively to Versailles, however, work on this subject has proliferated to such an extent that it would not be inappropriate to speak of Versailles studies to describe this science of the place and its history, which lies at the intersection of political history, art history , architecture, painting, sculpture, engraving, garden art, music, tableware, literary history, scientific history, institutional history, social history and the history of mentalities. Alexandre Maral, who has devoted his professional life to Versailles and is now the leading specialist in this field, has decided to publish a new monograph modelled on that of Pierre Verlet. The aim is to offer the curious reader the essentials of what can be known about the history of the place. However, the subject matter of this new work has been expanded in two respects: temporally, by including the period before Louis XIV (which has long been neglected but is fundamental to understanding the significance of Versailles, which is part of a long history) and the period after 1789 (up to 2023); spatially, by including the estate, the town and the surrounding area. Apart from the fact that knowledge on the subject has been enriched by numerous studies since 1985, the approach deserved to be renewed and to include reflections on Versailles as an instrument of government and a concentrate of civilisation. The final work combines scholarship and reading pleasure in a carefully designed, bound and richly illustrated edition.