French Literature Reviews - 2026
The Most Beautiful Pages of Montesquieu's Manuscripts
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
The most beautiful pages of Montesquieu's manuscripts entrusted to the Bordeaux Municipal Library by Jacqueline de Chabannes
Jacqueline de Chabannes's substantial donation in 1994 made it possible to deposit thousands of folios at the Bordeaux Municipal Library, originating from the Château de La Brède, where Montesquieu's manuscripts had been preserved since the 18th century. This volume presents the most interesting pieces from this collection, featuring extensively annotated reproductions placed within their proper context, organized along three main themes:
The Genesis of the Work; The Work in Secret; A Man of His Century
The genetic critical issues and interpretive perspectives raised by this recently exploited corpus were developed in two recent works:
C. Volpilhac-Auger, with the collaboration of Claire Bustarret: L'Atelier de Montesquieu. Manuscrits inédits de La Brède (Cahiers Montesquieu, Oxford-Naples, Voltaire Foundation-Liguori ed., 2001, distributed by Aux amateurs de livres) and C. Volpilhac-Auger, Montesquieu en 2005 (Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, SVEC, 2005, distributed by Aux amateurs de livres): “Une nouvelle ‘chaîne secrète' de L'Esprit des lois: l'histoire du texte” (p. 85-215).
The most beautiful pages of Montesquieu's manuscripts entrusted to the Bordeaux Municipal Library by Jacqueline de Chabannes
by Catherine Volpilhac-Auger
with the collaboration of Hélène de Bellaigue
In 1994, Countess Jacqueline de Chabannes donated to the Bordeaux Municipal Library the entirety of the manuscripts and books preserved for centuries at the Château de La Brède. Within this considerable collection, the most precious part consists of the manuscripts and books belonging to her ancestor, Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, author of The Spirit of the Law (L'Esprit des lois) and the Persian Letters (Lettres persanes). Mme de Chabannes wished to prevent this priceless collection from being dispersed. She chose to entrust it to the classified municipal library of Bordeaux, directed by Pierre Botineau and dear to Louis Desgraves, Montesquieu's biographer and former curator there, knowing that it would find excellent conditions for preservation and promotion. Already rich in significant collections—built up notably through the sales of La Brède books and manuscripts in 1926 and 1939, as well as through a regular acquisition policy—the Bordeaux library now offers researchers worldwide a truly unique collection. On the occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the philosopher's death, and as the Jacqueline de Chabannes Foundation is being established in accordance with the wish of one who sought to best serve Montesquieu's memory, it is fitting to present to the public the most remarkable pieces of such an exceptional donation.
Today, very few literary manuscripts dating from before the 19th century survive: customarily, manuscripts were destroyed as soon as they were printed, as they were deemed useless (or compromising) thereafter. Sketches and rough drafts were hardly considered worthy of interest and were consequently never preserved. Furthermore, the dispersion of family archives over the centuries and the vicissitudes of history have often destroyed manuscript heritage whose historical value was no longer perceived after a few decades. The situation of the La Brède manuscripts is quite different: Montesquieu himself carefully preserved everything that might one day be useful to him for correcting and expanding his published works, writing new ones, and perfecting those he had in progress when he died suddenly in 1755. His descendants scrupulously maintained his files, which could have been found exactly as Montesquieu had left them had his grandson, Charles-Louis, not burned a portion of them during his stay in England between 1818 and 1825. All those that returned to the Bordelais region in 1828 have been passed down to subsequent generations without alteration: for nearly two centuries, the owners of La Brède have been dedicated to preserving a heritage that belonged not only to them, but also to all admirers of Montesquieu throughout the world. In doing so, they have provided today's readers with the means to analyze and understand a thought that emerges in all its complexity.
In these pages, one rarely encounters his own handwriting: like many aristocrats or writers of his time, Montesquieu relied on secretaries, whose assistance became increasingly necessary as his eyesight failed. He dictated his letters to them, as well as the longest and most complex chapters of The Spirit of the Law; sometimes they copied earlier versions written by Montesquieu himself or by other secretaries. For researchers, this constitutes an extraordinary means of investigation: one can distinguish and date the intervention of nearly thirty different hands, making it possible to trace with the utmost precision the path of corrections and the composition of a work, to assign a precise date to a chapter, a page, or even a sentence, and to connect a citation or reference to the work from which it was drawn, since the latter appears in the catalog of his library—sometimes even with notes written by Montesquieu while reading it. All these documents—catalogs, notes, drafts—are now available. It is also possible to analyze the quality of the paper used and thus determine its place of manufacture, revealing where a particular batch of paper was purchased and therefore where (in the Bordelais region or in Paris) Montesquieu began writing a given chapter. We also learn that the philosopher had intended to dedicate a book of The Spirit of the Law to the colonies, and another (or perhaps a separate work) to the wars, deportations, and exterminations experienced by humankind as a result of conquests or religious intolerance.
The La Brède manuscripts, in their multiplicity, reflect both his complex thought and his very life. Through these pages appear his readings, his personal commentaries, and the way he shaped his future work while reading—in short, the working method of an extraordinarily organized mind of immense erudition. We also witness the progression of drafting, from a crossed-out page laden with hesitations and corrections to another more polished and resolute version. These manuscripts reveal what he wished to keep to himself, either because he deemed it imperfect or out of fear of prying eyes. In those times of censorship, when the Church played a major role (The Spirit of the Law was condemned by the Index in 1751), even Montesquieu, whose reputation had long since crossed the borders of the Kingdom of France, could not publish whatever he pleased. Finally, we discover a man in his family intimacy and laden with honors throughout his career: he was first a jurist in Bordeaux, only to become the legislator of humanity. These are the three aspects studied here: a working method that gave birth to the work, a library that kept its secret, and a man in his century.
The documents presented here offer a diverse journey, reflecting Montesquieu's encyclopedic and multifaceted work. He wrote scientific treatises as well as novels, philosophical works as well as historical texts, for which he had gathered a considerable body of documentation. Consequently, the following pages contain rejected chapters of The Spirit of the Law, sometimes barely sketched out, which he kept for other purposes; traces of personal meditation on ancient religion and, by extension, on his own religion; responses to objections raised against The Spirit of the Law in order to silence controversy; and also the resolution—carefully obscured by his son—of an oriental novel far more risqué than it might first appear.
His rich life in the Bordelais region alone would merit another publication: his activities as a landowner and estate manager, as lord of La Brède administering justice and enforcing his rights over his vassals, as president of the Parlement of Bordeaux, and as a party in lawsuits where some of his property titles were challenged—all of this placed him at the heart of a network of business relations and friendships that shaped his very experience. While only a few traces of this are found here, the collection is immensely rich in this regard. Far from constituting a specific domain that would allow his work and life to be isolated, this aspect is central; this experience fed into his novels and his treatises, where he historicizes and theorizes trade, advocates for fairer justice and a more reasoned and moderate exercise of power, and studies the functioning of societies—thereby founding sociology and providing modern states with rules that have not been forgotten by the various French constitutions, the American Constitution, and the German Basic Law of 1949.
The author of both the Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Law became, during his lifetime and even more so since the advent of modern democracies, one of the founders of political thought. By placing liberty at the core of his work, by assigning the legislator the duty of guaranteeing it to all individuals, and by setting an example of critical thinking, he blazed a new trail. We are all heirs to Montesquieu.
The preservation of Enlightenment-era literary manuscripts is a rare occurrence, as drafts and working papers were frequently discarded or lost following publication. The collection from the Château de La Brède, donated to the Bordeaux Municipal Library, provides a window into the creative processes of the 18th century. By examining such documents, researchers can observe the reliance on secretaries and the use of diverse paper stocks, which provide evidence regarding the location and timing of composition. Readers interested in the history of the book and the material conditions of intellectual production during the Enlightenment may find this volume relevant.
This volume presents pieces from the collection donated by Jacqueline de Chabannes, organized around the genesis of Montesquieu's work, his private writing, and his life as a man of his century. The materials document the evolution of his thought, from initial drafts to final versions, and the role of his library and secretaries in the composition of works such as The Spirit of the Law and the Persian Letters. These manuscripts reflect the working methods of the author and the context of censorship in which he operated.