?Ils n?en font ni m?tier ni marchandise?: imprimerie et commerce du livre scolaire chez les Fr?res des ?coles chr?tiennes en France au 18e si?cle

?They made neither a profession nor a commodity out of them?: printing, schoolbook trading and the Brothers of the Christian Schools in eighteenth-century France From the seventeenth century onwards, there was an increase in the number of teaching communities in France taking on the management of small charitable schools for working-class girls and boys. These communities set out in their regulations the way they wanted the classes to be run. They recommended the collective lesson method, which presupposed that all pupils who were at the same level should have the same book in their hands. This practical constraint meant that different ways of organising the provision of books to pupils emerged among these communities. One community, the Brothers of the Christian Schools, stands out in particular for its highly integrated book system, which was set up by their founder, Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. It included a common corpus for all schools, contracts with printers and direct sales to pupils. This particular aspect of the Lasallian community?s history is the focus of this article. The first section considers how both the educationists who served as models for La Salle and other contemporary communities dealt with the question of books. In the Ecole Paroissiale (1654), Jacques de Batencour described the collective lesson method but did not expand on the supply of books, which could be found in the bookshops of the parish of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. The Ursulines, whose schools were rapidly increasing in number, did not specify a corpus of common textbooks for the whole community, but their regulations stipulated that each school must stock up on books for resale at cost price to pupils. In actual fact, they made a small profit (20?30% of the book price) to fund book donations for the poorest pupils. This operating model could be found in many female communities, such as the Vatelottes de Toul and the Sisters of Ernemont in Normandy. In Lyon, Charles D?mia (1637?1689) established a learning progression method based on the use of a small canon of books that he had part-written. He did not organise the provision of the books to the pupils, but the Office of Schools (Bureau des ?coles) entered into contracts with local printers to ensure a plentiful supply of the necessary books. However, as school monitoring visits showed, it was difficult to make the teachers and families use the books listed in the R?glemens pour les ?coles de la ville et dioc?se de Lyon (regulations for schools in the city and diocese of Lyon) (1688). The teachers continued to use whatever syllabaries and children?s devotional books their pupils brought in, such as the Heures de Notre-Dame. When La Salle founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools, he had been partly inspired by the Lyon schools model. However, he took this a step further, writing all the educational materials himself so that they corresponded with the dual catechetical and literacy mission of his foundation. This heritage did not fossilise the Brothers? pedagogical reflection during the eighteenth century. The Lasallian syllabary was contested very early on and was gradually replaced by a more classical form of syllabary combined with the common prayers. The collection of psalms used in the schools evolved in line with musical trends. Textbooks for grammar and arithmetic, which were produced in response to the needs of the urban middle classes, were added in the 1770s. La Salle combined his specification of this corpus with the commercial organisation that was lacking in the D?mia schools (but present, for example, in the Ursuline schools), whereby the Brothers sold the books that the children were to use. Drawing on local archives, the second section of this article examines the many objections generated by this ?school bookshop?. Booksellers were the main opponents of this system. They appealed against the unfair competition to the royal administration, since it was theoretically forbidden for non-booksellers to practise bookselling. There were also objections from schoolteachers, who tried to discredit the Brothers by accusing them not only of making a profit on the sale of school supplies but also of favouring children from the urban middle classes over the poor, who were the supposed focus of their mission. Finally, the families themselves opposed this system because they were unhappy about the forced purchases, which conflicted with the domestic recycling practices that prevailed where school supplies were concerned. The third section of this article highlights the major breakthrough that this community-run system for producing schoolbooks represented. Production was concentrated in the community?s three provincial capitals, namely Rouen and Avignon from the early eighteenth century onwards and Nancy from the 1770s onwards. In all three cases, the provincial capital was located in a centre that was very active in terms of publishing, thus facilitating a large-scale supply to the schools. This was not just a fortuitous coincidence, because the dynamics that drove the Christian schools were not unrelated to those that maintained the prosperity of the local printing houses. In these three ?letterpress capitals?, the Brothers entered into contracts with the printers, negotiated prices and acquired real expertise in printing matters. Schools located in and around these cities could be easily equipped with the corpus of books specified by their founder. For schools further afield, it is possible that the corpus was adapted according to the titles available from local printers and booksellers, as shown for the schools in Reims, Montauban and Grenoble. Although Lasallian pedagogical practice did not always adhere fully to the plan set out by its founder and while the children did not always work through the entire corpus of La Salle?s books, his schools nevertheless became the models to be followed and imitated in the closing decades of the century. With their printing presses and their bookselling teachers, the Brothers? schools thus marked a considerable milestone in the slow diffusion of the simultaneous method of teaching in small French schools right up to the nineteenth century.

Automated summary

In 18th century France, educational communities managed small charitable schools, with the Brothers of the Christian Schools standing out for their integrated book system. Despite objections from booksellers and schoolteachers, this system represented a major breakthrough in producing schoolbooks, influencing teaching methods for decades to come.