ROLAND (JEANNE-MARIE PHILIPON, MADAME). [TRIP TO SWITZERLAND - Lot 231

Lot n° 231
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ROLAND (JEANNE-MARIE PHILIPON, MADAME). [TRIP TO SWITZERLAND - Lot 231
ROLAND (JEANNE-MARIE PHILIPON, MADAME). [TRIP TO SWITZERLAND] Autograph fragment. [1787]. 4 pp. in-12, wetness, traces of tab and glue on last page. PASSAGE FROM THE PREMIER JET MANUSCRIT DE SON VOYAGE EN SUISSE, which would be partially edited, in a different order and with variants, in his Œuvres parues en l'an VIII [1799-1800] à Paris chez Bidault (vol. III, pp. 311-315). In particular, it concerns the canton of Berne, which was then larger than it is today, including territories such as the future cantons of Aargau and Vaud. Madame Roland records her observations on mores (costumes, festivals, etc.), politics, arts and letters, and is attentive to the status of women and social relationships. " ... The people are not trodden underfoot; the farmer is well-to-do, often rich; but he nonetheless remains in his state, and the man who gives his daughter 50,000 livres marries her off to whichever of his valets he esteems most, or whom she loves most... POLITICS OCCUPIES ALL MINDS; or rather, the ambition to be something in government keeps them on their toes. Every bourgeois is eligible, but a small number of distinguished families invade the seats, and the calculations and intrigue to get there torment all the others from generation to generation. Alliances are made with this in mind; the rich but untitled and uncredited bourgeois seeks to marry his daughter into a senator's family, or gathers on his son a fortune capable of earning him the hand of a distinguished girl who earns him the hat. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO ENSURE THE HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGES, NOR IS IT COMMON, BUT IT IS REPLACED BY A GREAT RECIPROCAL FREEDOM, and manners remain for the appanage of country folk. For all the bourgeois are from Berne, and no one other than them can own a house or exercise any profession there. The population of this town is barely twelve thousand souls, and it will be necessary to grant the right of bourgeoisie...". ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REVOLUTION, MADAME ROLAND played an eminent role with her husband Jean-Marie Roland de La Platière, who was Minister of the Interior (1792-1793): she ran a political salon frequented by the Girondins, and was guillotined in 1793.
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