Le Mercure de France
| Parent company | Éditions Gallimard |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1890 |
| Founder | Alfred Vallette |
| Country of origin | France |
| Headquarters location | Paris |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website | www |
The Mercure de France was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group.
The gazette was published from 1672 to 1724 (with an interruption in 1674–77) under the title Mercure galant (sometimes spelled Mercure gallant) (1672–74) and Nouveau Mercure galant (1677–1724). The title was changed to Mercure de France in 1724. The gazette was briefly suppressed (under Napoleon) from 1811 to 1815 and ceased publication in 1825. The name was revived in 1890 for both a literary review and (in 1894) a publishing house initially linked with the symbolist movement. Since 1995 Mercure de France has been part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group.
Mercure de France should not be confused with another literary magazine, the Mercure du XIXe siècle (1823–30).
The Mercure galant was founded by the writer Jean Donneau de Visé in 1672. The name refers to the god Mercury, the messenger of the gods; the title also echos the Mercure françoys which was France's first literary gazette, founded in 1611 by the Paris bookseller J. Richer.
The magazine's goal was to inform elegant society about life in the court and intellectual/artistic debates; the gazette (which appeared irregularly) featured poems, anecdotes, news (marriages, gossip), theatre and art reviews, songs, and fashion reviews, and it became fashionable (and sometimes scandalous) to be mentioned in its pages. Publication stopped in 1674, but began again as a monthly with the name Nouveau Mercure galant in 1677.
The Mercure galant was a significant development in the history of journalism (it was the first gazette to report on the fashion world and played a pivotal role in the dissemination of news about fashion, luxury goods, etiquette and court life under Louis XIV to the provinces and abroad. In the 1670s, articles on the new season's fashions were also accompanied with engravings See this work for an extensive analysis of the Mercure galant's mediatization of styles and fashion The August, 1697 edition contains a detailed description of a popular new puzzle, now known as peg solitaire. This article is the earliest known reference to peg solitaire.
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