Théophraste Renaudot

Théophraste Renaudot , born in 1586 with Loudun (current department of the Vienna) and dead the October 25th 1653 is a Journaliste, Médecin and Philanthrope French. He is the founder of publicity and the French press by his two creations of the Bureau of address (1629) and of the Gazette , newspaper weekly (May 30th 1631). Ordinary doctor of the king, it was named “police chief with the poor of the kingdom”.

Protesting and doctor

Orphan of a modest family of the Protestant middle-class of Loudun, it made good studies of medicine near the surgeons of Paris and with the famous university of Montpellier, which was then opened to the Protestants. Doctor at 20 years, it travelled in Italy, Germany and perhaps in England.

In 1609, it Marie and is established in Loudun, carrying out a life of modest of notable. It then meets the preacher Franciscain François Leclerc of Tremblay, known as the Joseph father, mystic and burning in favor of the catholic Réforme, which led it to wonder about the question of poverty in the kingdom of France, which then made devastations at this beginning of. It forwarded to the Conseil Regency of Marie de Médicis a treaty On the condition of the poor , which was worth to him to obtain the title of “ordinary doctor” of King Louis XIII in 1612. Favor which was without a future, perhaps because of the opposition of the catholic excessively pious people then extremely hostile to the Protestants.

With the service of the poor and State

Towards 1625, it converts with Catholicism and entered the Council of Richelieu. Customer of the cardinal, Renaudot is the example even of the social success of a talented man in spite of his modest and Protestant origins, and while at the same time the kingdom engaged in the questioning of the rights of the Protestants.

In 1628 or 1629, it opened a “Bureau of addresses” with gift of a royal Privilège. It was a question for him of accommodating offers and applications, in order to bring a remedy for poverty and vagrancy without the contest of the Church, traditional charity or of enfermement. In 1633, an ordinance forced all them without employment to be registered there. This measurement was accompanied this year by the creation of the first newspaper of advertisements: the Sheet of the office of addresses . Its office, installed in the island of the City to the ensign of the Large Cock , thrived and accommodated many activities. For 3 pennies, one could make appear in the newspaper of the proposals of sale, hiring or a service.

It also installed there a dispensary, paying for easy and free one for the poor. It accommodated there even since 1632 medical weekly conferences, then varied, opening the era of the fashionable conferences and forming the image of “the honest man”.

Its success was so important that in 1641 it could open with the Louvre a branch of its office of addresses. Nevertheless, that attracted many enmities on behalf of the to him Medical college of Paris.

A founder of the press

Théophraste Renaudot was one of the precursors of the press. The May 30th 1631, it launched its famous Gazette , thus encasing the step with the ordinary Nouvelles of various places of the Parisian booksellers Martin and Vendosme, published since January 1631. Supported by Richelieu, which made the Gazette an instrument of its political propaganda, Renaudot carried this market vis-a-vis its competitors, in spite of the hostility of the community of the printers and Parisian booksellers. In 1635, the State granted to him a Monopole for him and its successors.

The quality of its newspaper was much better than that of its adversaries and, in fact, it had the financial support and adviser of the government of Richelieu. Quality, abundance, geographical diversity, concision and clearness of the news, the Gazette was a great success and was associated to him, as of 1634, the supplement of the Extraordinaires , reporting in detail the most important events. In 1638, appeared the first number of the French Mercure , collection of the events of the past year.

Difficulties of the Sling

With the death of Richelieu (1642) and of Louis XIII (1643), Théophraste Renaudot lost its principal guards. Regency could not take the risk to dissatisfy its enemies. Faculty obtained the prohibition of the doctor visits and the conferences in its office of addresses, then the office was entirely closed in 1646.

the Gazette survived, passing to the service of Mazarin, but the Fronde came, in 1649, to block the regular publication of it. Renaudot followed, during the escape of the royal family in order to protect the young person Louis XIV the Queen and Mazarin with Saint-Germain, leaving with his sons Eusèbe and Issac the drafting of the newspaper. Its monopoly was then started by the publication of rival titles in Paris as in province.

Renaudot was thanked for its fidelity with the station of “Historiographe of the King”. With its death, at the 67 years age, the monopoly of the Gazette was confirmed with his/her oldest son, who could not really prevent other publications.

Sources

François Bluche (to dir), Dictionary of the Great century , Beech, 1990, p.1322-1323 (Article of Marc Martin).

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