A Bookseller in Revolutionary Bordeaux

Books, pamphlets, and newspapers held an increasingly important place in the lives of town dwellers in eighteenth-century France. The men and women who purchased and read these printed items in the French provinces in the Revolutionary era are still, however, largely unknown. This is in part because historical attention has focused on Paris alone and on newspapers, their editors, publishers, and ideology. With very few exceptions the important agents in the distribution process-booksellers in Paris and the provinces-have not yet been studied. One such provincial bookseller, Jean Ducot in Bordeaux, made a business of importing books, pamphlets, and newspapers from Paris to Bordeaux and selling them locally or forwarding them elsewhere. An examination of his business in the early years of the Revolution discloses a number of facts about the provincial distribution of Parisian publications in the fastest growing and largest Atlantic port in France.