(PROSTITUTION). ~ Plainte et révélations nouvellement adressées par les filles de joie de Paris à̀ la congrégation, contre l’ordonnance de M. Mangin, qui leur défend de circuler dans les rues pour offrir leurs charmes aux passans; précis historique contenant les hauts cris des nymphes du Palais-Royal, la clameur des modistes et d’une grande quantité de Demoiselles logées en garni; ainsi que le débit de quelques honnêtes Filles de province qui viennent à Paris pour y chercher fortune en plein vent, et les regrets de quelques honnêtes Femmes à demi-publiques qui aiment à rendre de grands services pour un petit repas. Par une Matrone, jurisconsulte de ces dames. Paris: chez Garnier, libraire, au Palais-Royal... et se trouve aussi chez beaucoup de femmes sensibles, 1830.
8vo (204 × 130 mm), pp. 38, [2], hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece. Uncut in contemporary blue paper wrappers, preserved in modern boards. Bookplate of A. Farin. An excellent copy.
First edition of a rare pamphlet issued in the wake of the decree issued by the police prefect Claude Mangin on April 14, 1830, prohibiting prostitutes ‘from appearing, at any time and under any pretext, in the passages, in public gardens and on the boulevards’ and ordering them to engage in prostitution only in licensed brothels. This measure lasted only three months, but was enough for its opponents to publish dozens of pamphlets. All these occasional pieces are extremely rare, including this one.
Purporting to be the work of a Matrone, jurisconsulte de ces dames this enquiry and petition is satirical in tone, and yet still gives voice to the women it represents, by outlining in detail how Mangin’s heavy-handed decree would effect them at various levels, pointing out the impossibility of enclosing the thousands of Parisian filles de joie in licenses houses. The frontispiece, which has been attributed to Henri Monnier, shows a discussion among the women debating the pour et contre of the measures, presided over by the matron. It is captioned ‘Comité central et de Sabbat des Donzelles de Paris’, likening it to a ‘sabbath’ of witches. WorldCat lists copies at the Bn, Cleveland Public Library and Bryn Mawr College only.