Libelle (literary genre)

A libelle is a political pamphlet or book which slanders a public figure.Libelles held particular significance in France under the Ancien Régime, especially during the eighteenth century, when the pamphlets’ attacks on the monarchy became both more numerous and venomous. In recent years, cultural historian Robert Darnton has written on the libelles, arguing for the subversive power that the libelles of the late eighteenth century exercised in undermining monarchical authority.

The word libelle is derived from the Latin libellus, for “small book.” Although originally it was used to describe pamphlets in general, it became primarily applicable to the genre of brief and defamatory attacks on pre-revolutionary French public figures. The 1762 edition of the dictionary published by the Académie française defines libelle as an “offensive work.” The publishers of libelles were known as libellistes.

Libelles varied widely in format and style. Early libelles consisted of either a half-sheet or a single sheet in octavo format. Some later libelles, published in the eighteenth-century for example, were book-length. Regardless of their format, the libelles were cohesive in their overblown and sensationalist style; they were full of wordplay, and often employed literary techniques such as metaphor. The libelles were defiant of authority, and spoke out against prominent individuals.

Libelles were invariably of a political nature, both slanderous and subversive. They proliferated during times of political crises, from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

In the 1580s, during the French Wars of Religion, libelles flourished, with an average of about one occasionnel published per day in Paris.Libelles were published in support of both the Catholic and the Protestant points of view. Catholic libelles were typically pointed at the King, attacking his character, primarily his weak religious beliefs, and portraying him as not only godless, but evil. The Protestant libelles accused the Catholic League of treasonously supporting the pope.

During the civil war known as the Fronde, libelles proliferated in France, numbering around 5,000 between the years 1648-1653. During the Fronde, the majority of libelles were directed against Cardinal Mazarin, the chief minister of France. These libelles were referred to as Mazarinades. They ridiculed Mazarin for a wide variety of things, including his low birth, his luxurious proclivities and speculated on his erotic liaison with the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria. One of the most famous of these characterized Mazarin as follows:

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