François-Jean Baudouin

Contributions

1. Discours sur les rapports politiques-économiques de l'Italie libre avec la France et les autres états de l'Europe translation publisher
2. Dix-septième lettre de Caton, traduite de l'anglais de Thomas Gordon translation publisher
3. Leçons à un jeune prince sur la disposition actuelle de l'Europe à une révolution générale translation publisher
4. Opinion de M. Rabaut de Saint-Étienne sur quelques points de la Constitution has translation publisher
5. Préliminaire de la Constitution française, reconnaissance et exposition raisonnée des droits de l'homme & du citoyen has translation publisher
6. Vie de Laurent de Médicis surnommé le Magnifique, traduite de l'anglais de William Roscoe, sur la 2e édition, par François Thurot translation has paratext publisher

Knows

• Napoléon Bonaparte military politician writer
• Jacques-Louis David artist politician professor revolutionary
• François-Laurent-Xavier Levrault bookseller civil servant publisher
• Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau abolitionist freemason pamphleteer politician translator writer
• James Phillips abolitionist bookseller editor entrepreneur publisher

Member of

• Jacobin Club political organisation

Notes

Unlike many successful publishers, Baudouin did not come from a publishing background. Instead, he was the grandson of the painter François Boucher, son of the king's first painter, Pierre-Antoine Baudouin and cousin of Jacques-Louis David. In 1776, he began his career in apprenticeship with his uncle Michel Lambert before succeeding him in 1787. His wife was Marie-Madeleine-Aglaé Carouge (1764-1816), femme de lettres and author of several works for young people.

In May 1789 Baudouin was elected third supplement deputy for the Paris Third Estate to the Estates-General but never sat. Originally based in Versailles, he moved his publishing operation to Paris to become the official printer for the Assemblée Nationale (1789-92), the Convention Nationale (1792-1795, as 'Imprimerie nationale'); the Corps Législatif (1795-1814); the Institut national des sciences et arts (1796); the Tribunat (1800); the Institut de France (1796-1804); and the Institut impérial (1805-1814).

He also published the 'Journal des débats' and the 'Logographe' between 1789 and 1792. A member of the Jacobin Club and the Tuileries Section's revolutionary Committee of surveillance, he was arrested in Year 2 and imprisoned at Vincennes and then in the Luxembourg. Declared bankrupt in May 1805, after Napoleon had given control of the Imprimerie impériale to Marcel, an orientalist on his Egyptian expedition, Baudouin moved to St-Petersburg where he unsuccessfully tried to establish an imperial publishing house, while his wife continued to manage the Parisian publishing operation. He returned to France in 1809 and was succeeded by his son, Charles Baudouin in 1816. He was also the author of several works on publishing, the freedom of the press and political matters.

He was a remarkable character, who while committed to the principles of the Revolution, remained a moderate throughout, and managed to deftly weave his way past each successive regime. He also showed considerable personal courage, intervening on several occasions to save, or attempt to save, victims from the mob, including sheltering several Swiss guards following the assault on the Tuileries in August 1792. Mirabeau once described him as someone, "qui a fait tant d'impressions dans le monde".

For more, see the extensive website devoted to his career: http://archives-web.univ-paris1.fr/collection-baudouin/accueil/historique-de-la-collection-baudouin/index.html; and: http://archives-web.univ-paris1.fr/collection-baudouin/f-j-baudouin/itineraire-de-vie-1759-1835/index.html.