Base Visiteurs de Versailles
The Centre de recherche du château de Versailles has launched the Visiteurs Database listing the accounts of foreign visitors to the domain, the Palace and the Court of Versailles, between the second half of the 17th century and the end of the 19th century. The database is part of the research programme “Court identities and the myth of Versailles in Europe: perception, adherence and rejection (18th-19th centuries).”
The purpose of this tool is to draw up a list of the personal accounts of foreign visitors to the domain, palace and court of Versailles, in order to examine how the “Versailles myth” was disseminated throughout Europe. The period in question will extend from the reign of Louis XIV to the end of the 19th century, in order to establish how opinions about this place evolved, from the moment it established itself as the centre of royal power to when it became a testimony to a monarchical past.
The corpus will bring together a variety of texts: memoires, travel accounts, letters and even diaries, written by authors of diverse social and geographical origins. To make these more easily accessible, several thematic filters will be put in place, such as the period of the trip, places visited, people encountered and the occasions at court when the observations were made.
(…more at Château de Versailles Centre de Recherche website…)