Biblioth\u00e8que Guy Bechtel, cat. 1978, n\u00b0 89.<\/i><\/p>\n
An astonishing handwritten account of a convulsion demonstration.<\/span><\/p>\n The document is signed Morand, possibly the surgeon Sauveur Fran\u00e7ois Morand or his son Jean-Fran\u00e7ois, also a doctor and a resident of the Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences.<\/p>\n The author, obviously a doctor, had anonymously entered a Paris flat where a meeting of convulsionaries was to be held. He attended the entire ceremony, which he recounts in detail.<\/p>\n Four convulsionaries enter the trance in succession: Sister Rachel, Sister F\u00e9licit\u00e9, Sister Sion and Sister Suzanne. A male figure in a dressing gown, called Papa by the convulsionaries, is the master of ceremonies.<\/p>\n “Si l’on en juge par les contorsions, par les raidissements des membres, dans lesquels les poignets se ferment et les doigts se serrent fortement, par les postures dans lesquelles on voit le visage rougir, la gorge se resserrer ou se gonfler, dans lesquelles la respiration tremblante, gesn\u00e9e, retenue ou forc\u00e9e est entrecoup\u00e9e de sanglots, de soupirs, de sons plaintifs (…) tout contribue \u00e0 faire passer (…) l’id\u00e9e d’une situation violente, d’un \u00e9tat de douleur, et d’une personne menac\u00e9e de suffocation… Dans quelques acc\u00e8s particuliers o\u00f9 les s\u0153urs saisies d’une esp\u00e8ce de delyre ou d’extase, semblent revenues \u00e0 un \u00e9tat de simplicit\u00e9 et d’innocence dans un degr\u00e9 approchant l’enfance ces secours qui r\u00e9pugneraient \u00e0 bien du monde, sont sollicit\u00e9s, sous le titre de NANAN.” Les “secours” sont en fait les souffrances vari\u00e9es inflig\u00e9es par “papa” : deux s\u0153urs sont successivement crucifi\u00e9es, sans le moindre signe de douleur (l’une d’entre elles d\u00e9clare subir la crucifixion pour la 21e fois). “Les clous qui sont employ\u00e9s \u00e0 cette op\u00e9ration, sont de l’esp\u00e8ce dite Demi Picard, tr\u00e8s aigus et longs de 5 pouces” (l’auteur parviendra \u00e0 en subtiliser un). L’une d’entre elles “non contente de cet essay, a tout de suite demand\u00e9 que sa langue fut fendue ; il lui a \u00e9t\u00e9 donn\u00e9 satisfaction”; une autre s\u0153ur choisit la b\u00fbche “un gros tron\u00e7on de bois de chesne rond, lisse et poli…” \u00e0 l’aide duquel “papa” pilonne son dos ; une autre demande la sangle.<\/p>\n Morand observed the pulse, breathing and other signs of convulsions with the practised eye of a doctor. He points out that “malgr\u00e9 l’intr\u00e9pidit\u00e9 d\u00e9cid\u00e9e” de l’officiant, “les secours en usage dans l’\u0153uvre des convulsions, ne sont pas pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment ce qu’ils paraissent au premier coup d’\u0153il”, l’homme “poss\u00e8de l’art et le talent de [les] rendre supportables”.<\/p>\n At the end of the volume is an account of another session attended by a number of prominent figures, during which the police intervened, arresting “le papa et les s\u0153urs qui \u00e9taient au nombre de six”.<\/p>\n It is followed by the report of the hearing, written by another hand.<\/p>\n The author worked on his text, crossing it out and correcting it several times (for a presentation to the Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences? but this memoir does not appear in the table for the years 1760-61). He prefaced his signature with a Latin formula attesting to the veracity of his testimony: “testor de visu”.<\/p>\n On the title, in the same hand, the volume bears the words “Remis \u00e0 la biblioth\u00e8que de l’acad\u00e9mie des Sciences, par le t\u00e9moin soussign\u00e9 \u00e0 la page 45” (Morand), ainsi que plusieurs cachets de la dite biblioth\u00e8que et un cachet “Double \u00e9chang\u00e9”.<\/p>\n On verso of title: very interesting contemporary engraved bookplate, armorial but unidentified, repeated in stencil at the head of the text.<\/p>\n An exceptional document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 4to manuscript (225 x180 mm) 1title leaf, 45 pp. and 3 unn.l. Contemporary velum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":82339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[546],"product_tag":[1212,1314,1312],"class_list":{"0":"post-73227","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-manuscript","7":"product_tag-esotericism-witchcraft","8":"product_tag-general-psychiatry","9":"product_tag-neurology","10":"pa_auteur-convulsionnaires-manuscrit-2","11":"pa_type-de-livre-manuscript","13":"first","14":"instock","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"acf":{"artist":"CONVULSIONNAIRES - MANUSCRIT","chapeau":"","adresse_bibliographique":"Paris, 1760","book_type":"Manuscript","provenance":"","afficher_prix":""},"yoast_head":"\n