Société de l'histoire de France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Société de l'histoire de France (SHF) was established in 1833 at the instigation of the French minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot, in order to contribute to the renewal of scholarship fuelled by a widespread interest in national history, typical of the Romantic period. Many leading French historians of the 19th and 20th centuries have been elected to its annual presidency, and members have contributed a vast quantity of critical editions of texts and documents relating to French history, mainly chronicles, memoirs, and letters. Its field was initially limited to the period before 1789, but the SHF later absorbed the Société d'histoire contemporaine (1927).

Its series of texts and its periodicals (Bulletin and Annuaire, combined since 1863 under the title Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France ABSHF), consist of more than 500 volumes. The SHF gathers twice yearly for a lecture on a historical subject and, on occasions, holds conferences for a wider audience (latest to date, on family archives from medieval times to the present, in 2006).

A large proportion of all volumes published by the SHF up to 1935, including the complete series of its three periodicals, can be accessed on-line through the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica. The SHF website provides bibliographical resources: the complete catalogue of their publications (with links to Gallica, when relevant), and the general index of articles and documents published in the Annuaire-Bulletin from 1911 to the present.

[edit] References

Charles-Olivier Carbonell, "La naissance de la Société de l'histoire de France", in ABSHF 1983-1984, pp. 111-27.
Philippe Contamine, "La Société de l'histoire de France et son programme de travail de 1834 à 1851", in ABSHF 1987, pp. 135-43.
Website of the Société de l'histoire de France
French National Archives:inventory of documents relating to the Société de l'histoire de France.
Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (French national commission for historical and scientific research, in charge of learned societies since 1834).