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Abstract
Recently digested evidence from the 1740s confirms both patterns and variety in the sodomitical subculture of Paris in the 1720s and 1730s that historians have already analyzed. Men who desired men understood the methods and hazards of solicitation in the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens, where the police deployed decoys to entrap them. Records of arrest demonstrate continuity over three decades as well as evolution in practices of surveillance. In 1748–49, agents interrogated not only the men they arrested but also the men these men mentioned, who named others, almost none of whom ended up in prison. We still do not know why the police prioritized information over imprisonment at this time because we have no documentation about administrative deliberations. Thanks to archival inquiry, however, we can now follow the steps that preceded the shift.
Notes
1 The word ‘pédérastie’ appears for the first times in documents dated 10 June 1746 and 28 December 1747. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives de la Bastille 11597, f. 180; 11610, f. 333. All the cartons cited in the notes, most but not all of them available online in Gallica, are located in this series.
2 Jeffrey Merrick, ‘Patterns and Concepts in the Sodomitical Subculture of Eighteenth-Century Paris,’ Journal of Social History 50.2 (2016), 273–306; ‘New Sources and Questions for Research on Sexual Relations between Men in Eighteenth-Century France,’ Gender & History 30.1 (2018), 9–29; Sodomy in Eighteenth-Century France (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020), Introduction and chapters 1–2.
3 ‘Policing Homosexuality’ (Colorado College website), including a comprehensive bibliography on same-sex relations in early modern France <https://coloradocollege.website/phs/>.
4 Merrick, Sodomy, chapter 1.
5 10258, f. 530v.
6 11501, f. 2v.
7 One clerk with excellent handwriting recorded most of the reports from 1723 into 1742.
8 10258, f. 530v; 10259, f. 22; 11489, f. 214v; 11490, f. 96; 11500, f. 71; 11501, f. 176v; 11507, f. 157.
9 10259, f. 4.
10 11490, f. 61.
11 11456, f. 224v.
12 11433, f. 126v; 11481, ff. 242v–43; 11489, ff. 270, 274v; 11497, ff. 160v, 358v; 11588, f. 125v, 130v. For a rare exchange between a saucy sodomite and a recognized decoy, see 11588, f. 125.
13 Two men wandered here and there for an exceptionally long time before having sex, appropriately enough, in an alley off rue des Mauvais Garçons. 11457, ff. 39–40. One Bara invited a decoy to join him at home the next day, when his parents would be away. 11481, f. 158v.
14 11517, ff. 79v–80.
15 11497, f. 161. Decoys had to think on their feet. After François Le Blanc told a decoy that he took no risks because he had done time in Bicêtre, and the decoy made the same claim, Le Blanc wondered why they had not seen each other there. 11468, f. 28v.
16 The Policing Male Homosexuality (PMH) database, which may eventually include as many as 10,000 names, will allow us to analyse all these variables systematically rather than anecdotally.
17 The Appendix includes six males in their teens, twenty-one in their twenties, seven in their thirties, four in their forties, three in their fifties, and one each in their sixties and seventies.
18 11408, f. 79; 11468, f. 79; 11490, f. 96v; 11579, f. 6; 11610, f. 325.
19 11597, f. 291.
20 11597, f. 291v.
21 11489, f. 214v; 11574, f. 2v.
22 11624, f. 118v. He also admitted that he claimed to know notables in order to make a positive impression on men he accosted.
23 11490, f. 97.
24 11468, ff. 24v–25.
25 Only one man attempted to kiss a decoy on the mouth. 11517, f. 158v.
26 Only one man mentioned oral sex. 11568, f. 184.
27 11568, f. 183; 11516, f. 77v.
28 10259, f. 6. Other named taverns include La Roche-Guyon rue des Quatre Vents, where the two servers, according to Jean Martin, ‘en sont’. 11517, f. 157v.
29 11570, f. 262.
30 11475, f. 378; 11497, f. 164v; 11482, f. 113.Two domestics served their former master Jacques Henri Darcemalle de La Touche ‘dans son infame commerce’. 11526, f. 129. For La Touche’s dossier, see 11362, ff. 156–274.
31 11477, ff. 20, 17. 1 livre = 20 sols or sous.
32 11498, f. 2.
33 11588, f. 123.
34 10259, f. 14. The count inquired about Flamand, lackey of the (sodomitical) duc de Villars, ‘quon lui a dit en avoir un beau’, and mentioned ‘plusieurs seigneurs qui sont de ce gout la’. Several men mentioned adventures at Versailles. 11468, f. 70v; 11490, ff. 96v, 112; 11500, f. 71; 11586, f. 184.
35 11446, f. 131v.
36 11515, f. 94. Early modern writers suggested that Turks and other ‘exotic’ peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas practised sodomy. See Clarence Rouillard, The Turk in French History, Thought, and Literature (1520–1660) (Paris: Boivin et Cie, 1941).
37 11517, f. 79; 11574, f. 2; 11579, f. 6v.
38 11579, f. 6v. The decoy noted that Dantand himself had a ‘belle phisionomie’.
39 11456, ff. 239v–40.
40 11574, f. 2v.
41 11456, f. 239v.
42 11517, f. 159.
43 One of them, Jean Garnier, was called little Jeanne because he ‘se deguise souvent en femme’, but when and why? 11446, f. 74.
44 11497, f. 161; 11588, f. 132.
45 Unless Jean Garnier cross-dressed at the assembly he mentioned in passing. 11446, f. 73. See also 11568, f. 183; 11588, f. 126; 11597, ff. 274, 296.
46 Merrick, Sodomy, chapter 2.
47 11483, f. 54.
48 10258, f. 530v. In this case, Michel Marie Amelot de Gournay told a decoy that a wigmaker’s assistant had rejected him in this way, and the decoy rejected him in the same way. One Lastique did not want a decoy to visit his master’s residence because he did not anyone to know ‘comment il pensoit’. 11433, f. 127. Claude Jacob concluded that men who ignored him under the arches ‘ne pensoient point comme cela’. 11514, f. 2.
49 11558, f. 158.
50 11588, f. 122. For a more complex version of this incident, see f. 132v.
51 Or with cardinal and principal minister André Hercule de Fleury, until his death on 29 January 1743.
52 (Antoine) Malivoire, Simonnet, and Vierroy, lieutenant and exempts of the robe courte. Haimier and (Jean Charles de Péant) de La Janière, exempts of the la Prévôté et maréchaussée générale de l’Île-de-France. Duval, Lebrun, and Leclerc, exempts of the watch. The records also mention inspectors Dadvenal, (Victor) Pillerault, and (Bernard) Roussel.
53 10259, f. 15. Girard signed one document, and clerks wrote his name at the top of several others. 10258, f. 538; 11475, f. 372; 11501, f. 278; 11588, ff. 119v, 125, 127, 131.
54 11601, f. 80.
55 11518, f. 139.
56 11522, f. 240; 11483, f. 54v. The case summary (f. 56), however, reported that Ruelle ‘commettoit se abominations par goust’. Such verbal slippages deserve study.
57 For submissions with signatures, see 10258, f. 356v; 10259, ff. 2v, 4v; 11468, f. 72; 11501, f. 175v; 11594, f. 362; 11599, f. 267.
58 For a sample summons to report to the lieutenant general, see 10259, f. 25.
59 He rarely subjected them to formal interrogation by commissaires, based on the observations and conversations recorded by decoys, which always elicited more denials than admissions. See for example 11579, ff. 10–11. Another dossier includes a cover letter (11477, f. 20) without the interrogation, which is not located in the commissaire’s papers.
60 11456, f. 234.
61 10259, f. 39. For another such petition, see 11597, f. 179.
62 11522, f. 20. Rolland’s siblings had already requested his confinement in 1737. 10258, f. 223.
63 Julien Le Brun exculpated his brother Louis of ‘un crime dont il n’a jamais eû la moindre idée’ and indicated that the word itself, which he did not use, ‘fait horreur’. 11468, f. 88. Others named the offence with labels such as ‘le crime contre nature’. 11547, f. 250.
64 11481, f. 25; 11579, f. 15v. René La Comble also use the word ‘manchette’. 11518, f. 142. For more on such terms see Claude Courouve, Vocabulaire de l’homosexualité masculine (Paris: Payot, 1985); Jean Luc Hennig, Espadons, mignons et autres monstres: Vocabulaire de l’homosexualité masculine sous l’ancien régime (Seyssel: Cherche Midi, 2014).
65 11477, f. 29.
66 11588, f. 134. Jean Martin, 21, lived with Catherine Durand, 30, who told neighbours that she planned to leave him ‘attendu quil namoit pas Les femmes et quil sadonnoit entierement aux hommes dont il faisoit commerce’. After she realized she was pregnant, he secured his release by marrying her. 11517, f. 159v.
67 For an exception see 11457, ff. 49, 68.
68 He objected, ‘c’est non seulement le fait deshonorer mais S’est luy faire perdre Son Tems’. 11468, f. 73v.
69 11475, f. 378. For a sample enlistment, signed with an X, see 11568, f. 185.
70 How many sodomites had wives? How much did they pay or get for sex? How many ignored summonses or violated letters of exile? How long did they spend in prison? It is difficult to answer the last question because the AB series in the Archives de la Préfecture de Police does not include most of the relevant registers, especially from the For-l’Evêque and Petit-Châtelet prisons.
71 11456, f. 224. Claude Le Camus stated that a soldier named Blondel ‘la mis dans ge goust la’. 11516, f. 57v. Michel de Miché admitted that he had done something with a soldier twelve times in six months, but only after drinking. 11610, f. 323v. Soldiers, like students, deserve further study.
72 11522, f. 240.
73 11446, f. 74, including mention of an assembly in a tavern.
74 11518, ff. 249v–50.
75 11518, ff. 252–53. The list also includes Didier Perducat, attorney in the Parlement, 1730–75, who ‘a consommé entierement l’action infame’ with him more than once and paid him for his compliance. For more on Perducat, see Merrick, Sodomy, pp. 185–89; 12114, f. 334.
76 11516, ff. 116v–17. He retracted his words about the monk. For another such case involving monks, see 11490, ff. 111–12.
77 11574, f. 86v.
78 11601, f. 80.
79 11588, f. 126. The list also includes an upholsterer, who held ‘des assemblées Dinfames festes et dimanches chez lui’, and Michel Marie Amelot de Gournay, who warned Foucault that ‘sil en parloit jamais il ne seroit pas longtemps en vie’. Foucault noted that Amelot’s personal valet procured ‘des jeunes gens’ for his master. For more on Amelot, see Merrick, Sodomy, pp. 252–56.
80 10259, f. 41. Simon Fontaine mentioned Charpentier as far back as 16 November 1745. 11569, f. 115.
81 10259, f. 43v.
82 10259, ff. 50, 53, 52, 59, 71, 68, 85, 132. Latour, wine vendor’s assistant, refused to appear, f. 43.
83 11610, ff. 322. Berryer noted that he did not receive this report until the 29th.
84 11610, f. 328v.
85 Quoted in Alan Williams, The Police of Paris, 1715–1789 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), p. 95, from lieutenant general Jean Charles Pierre Lenoir’s copy of commissaire Jean Baptiste Charles Lemaire’s ‘Mémoire sur l’administration de la police,’ Bibliothèque Municipale d’Orléans, ms 1424, ff. 57–58.
86 Merrick, Sodomy, 9–10.
87 He even recruited one, François Lepoivre, as a decoy. Merrick, Sodomy, pp. 200–05, 216–35, 243–51.
88 Merrick, Sodomy, chapter 6. Jean Lenoir and Bruno Diot, the last men executed for sodomy alone, on 6 July 1750, have been memorialized in a tablet set in the pavement on rue Montorgueil.
89 Before and not just after the decriminalization of sodomy in 1791, they focused on public indecency and corruption of minors.
90 Vincent Milliot, Un Policier des lumières (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2011); ‘L’Admirable police’: Tenir Paris au Siècle des lumières (Ceyzérieu: Champ Vallon 2016).
91 11588, f. 130v.
92 Joan DeJean, Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast (New York: Basic Books, 2022).
93 No one has investigated the emergence of the subculture systematically in the Archives of the Bastille.
94 The authors of accounts of fictional sodomites attributed more sense of collective identity to them, as in Pierre François Godard de Beauchamps, Histoire du roi Apprius (1728), Anecdotes pour server à l’histoire secrete des Ebugors (1733), Jean Baptiste de Boyer d’Argens, Thérèse philosophe, ou Mémoires pour server à l’histoire du P. Dirrag et de Mademoiselle Eradice (1748). For excerpts from these and other pornographic works, see Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant T. Ragan, eds., Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 127–33; Jeffrey Merrick, ed., Sodomites, Pederasts and Tribades in Eighteenth-Century France: A Documentary History (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2019), pp. 203–11. The similarities and differences between such texts and police records, across the eighteenth century, deserve systematic analysis.
95 Mémoires secrets pour server à l’histoire de la république des lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu’à nos jours, 36 vols (London, 1780–89), vol. 23, p. 242.
96 My Voices from the Archives: Pederasty in Paris, 1785, forthcoming from Penn State University Press, includes all the depositions from one year as well as an introduction that extends the argument in this article.
97 In the modern 19th arrondissement.
98 Note: ‘a comparu’. Pierre Charpy, 16 January 1748. 10259, f. 52.
99 Note: ‘a comparu’. François Bruxelles, 16 January 1748. 10259, f. 53.
100 Note: ‘on ne sait où il est’. Framboisier summoned him in February 1748, but he refused to appear before the lieutenant general. 10259, f. 43. For more references, see Merrick, Sodomy, 108.
101 Place des Vosges.
102 Note: ‘a comparu’. André Saloman Picard, 15 January 1748. 10259, f. 50.
103 Limonadiers sold beer, cider, fortified drinks, sweet liqueurs, ice cream, coffee, and chocolate.
104 Later incorporated into the quai de l’Hôtel de Ville.
105 Adjacent to the Bastille, demolished.
106 Note: ‘a comparu’. Thomas Beguet, 31 January 1748. 10259, f. 71.
107 Jean Baptiste François Joseph, comte de Sade (1701–67), father of the novelist. For more on Sade, see Merrick, Sodomy, pp. 146, 247.
108 Presumably after Marie Angélique de Bournonville (1686–1764), wife of Jean Baptiste de Durfort, duc de Duras (1684–1770).
109 Note: ‘a comparu’. For more on Coquaire, as he signed his name, see 11654, ff. 72–73, 75–86, 91–95, 99, 102–04, 108–09.
110 Note: ‘a comparu’. Pierre Pinson, 30 January 1748. 10259, f. 68.
111 Baptiste Patrot, 3 May 1748. 10259, f. 132.
112 Note: ‘a comparu’. 23 January 1748. 10259, f. 59.
113 Louis Boursier, 9 February 1748. 10259, f. 85.
114 223–39, rue Saint-Denis, demolished.
115 For references to Paulin, see Merrick, Sodomy, 108.
116 For references to Julien Mathurin Alais, see Merrick, Sodomy, 107.
117 Written by the decoy himself, with many mistakes in spelling.
118 Quai de la Tournelle.
119 Later quai de Montebello.
120 Later rue de l’hôtel Colbert.
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Jeffrey Merrick
Jeffrey Merrick has published extensively on political culture, suicide, and family, gender, and sexuality in early modern France. Penn State University Press will publish his next book, Voices from the Archives: Pederasty in Paris, 1785.