Le “Gazetier cuirassè”, anedoctes scandaleuses et ecrit injurieux de la cour de France: Quadri convincenti di un mondo in evoluzione sul finire dell’Ancien Régime

Vies privées and cronique scandaleuses, as well as satirical cartoons, behind the stated purpose of informing readers were in the pre-revolutionary age in France an articulate form of response to the pressure of events. In them, the message was fused and confused, with strong images capable of undermining a now discredited central power with deplorable customs. If under Louis XIV, literature in all its forms was thus an instrument of absolutism, the authors of the following century found themselves operating outside state control, turning drawings, writings and words against it. Some became heroes, others, like Charles Théveneau de Morande, barely survived. But all played a key role in determining subsequent events. They broke social barriers, bringing an entire society closer to gossip and rumores. They influenced the street, spreading a heterodox value system, in blatant contrast to power of the Giants whose distorted images fed the voracious curiosity of an illiterate and dissatisfied population