La pedagogie heraldique sous l'ancien regime. Des colleges et de l'enseignement aux jeux de cartes et aux jeux de l'oie
Institution:
Paris, EPHEDisciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
In order to better understand the role which heraldry played the ancien regime, the study of its teaching and of its pedagogical foundations seems to be one of the best possible ways to elucidate this subject. Educational institutions and colleges were the most important centers of instruction but were not the only places where the knowledge of heraldry was passed on. Indeed, coat of arms were an integral part of daily student life and they appeared upon various supports from architecture to book bindings which were awarded as prizes to the best students or for the successful completion of a thesis. The order of the compagnie de jesus excelled in the diffusion of heraldic devices. Among the tools of apprenticeship, heraldic playing cards (jeux de cartes) and race games (jeux de l'oie) played a primordial role. Created by the two teaching jesuits, father fine de brianville and father menestrier, these games conveyed the essential knowledge necessary to future generations of the old regime who were always enthusiasts of emblematic symbols. These heraldic playing cards, which were invented around 1660, were to slowly cede their place to the race games whose rules were more rudimentary. The year 1718 saw the last two original heraldic playing games appear in the form of race games. Aside from these + jeux ;, heraldic manuals and treatises occupied a place in the libraries of colleges. The establishments where this teaching was done delonged, for the most part, to the elite jesuit, oratorian or benedictine colleges. Private boarding schools were the privileged locales of these heraldic + aristocratization ; regarding the vogue for heraldry which occured at the end of the ancien regime. More evenly spread through all strata of society in the 17th century, coats of arms went from being a simple representative tool to being a mark of belonging to a certain social class. Heraldry, which was dominated and taught by the jesuits, suffered as a result of their expulsion from france, and with them was lost its greatest defenders. Other congregations tried to maintain the teaching of heraldry, not by taste, but rather in order to attract an aristocratic clientele. After its zenith, during the reign of louis xiv, heraldry began a long decline until its total suppression under the revolution.
Abstract FR:
Afin de mieux cerner la place de l'heraldique sous l'ancien regime, l'etude de son enseignement et de ses supports pedagogiques est apparu comme l'un des meilleurs eclairages possible. Le monde de l'enseignement et des colleges est l'univers essentiel mais non unique dans lequel se transmet la connaissance des armoiries. En effet, ces dernieres apparaissent a chaque moment de la vie du collegien sur de multiples supports tels l'architecture et les livres, ou a l'occasion des remises de prix des exercices publics et des theses. Les etablissements de la compagnie de jesus excellent dans le deploiement des decors heraldiques. Parmi les outils de l'apprentissage, les jeux de cartes et les jeux de l'oie heraldiques jouent un role primordial. Crees par des pedagogues jesuites, les pp. Fine de brianville et menestrier, ces jeux vehiculent les connaissances essentielles aux futurs hommes de l'ancien regime, toujours amateurs de signes emblematiques. Nes vers 1660, les jeux de cartes vont peu a peu laisser la place a des jeux de l'oie aux regles plus elementaires. L'annee 1718 voit les deux derniers jeux heraldiques originaux paraitre sous forme de jeux de l'oie. A cote des jeux, les manuels et les traites de blason occupent une place dans les bibliotheques des colleges. Les etablissements ou ces enseignements sont realises appartiennent pour la plupart a l'elite des colleges jesuites, oratoriens ou benedictins. Les pensionnats sont les lieux privilegies de ces distractions heraldiques. Les rares exercices publics conserves temoignent aussi d'une aristocratisation evidente de l'engouement heraldique a la fin de l'ancien regime. Plus repandues au milieu du xviie siecle dans toutes les couches de la societe, les armoiries passent d'un simple outil de representation a une marque d'appartenance sociale. L'heraldique, dominee et enseignee par les jesuites, souffrit de leur expulsion de france perdant avec eux leurs meilleurs defenseurs. Les autres congregations tenterent de maintenir son enseignement non par gout mais pour attirer une clientele aristocratique. Apres une periode d'apogee, sous le regne de louis xiv, les armoiries connurent un long declin jusqu'a leur suppression a la revolution.