This detailed, chronologically wide-ranging study provides an unusual and valuable anatomizing of the neglected ‘underside’ of Ancien Re´gime French administration. … Hamscher’s study is remarkable for the depth and detail of its research, with material collated from thirty-five departmental archives as well as Paris collections. . . . An Appendix provides comprehensive detail of this combination of general patterns and ... Read moreregional variations. This is an extraordinary piece of sustained research into the workings of a hitherto unexplored aspect of the Ancien Re´gimes.
French Studies
[T]here are innumerable fresh insights and discussions throughout the volume to engage students of other aspects of pre-revolutionary France. It should find a place in every library claiming to offer adequate coverage of the topic.
European History Quarterly
During the last century and one-half of its existence, the Old Regime French monarchy struggled from one fiscal crisis to the next, and financial considerations often dictated state policy in key ways. Funding issues even shaped judicial policy, sometimes mandating the categories of crime that could be prosecuted at crown expense. Thus, this study of the financing of royal justice, the result of extensive research by one of the foremost scholars of the administration and judiciary of the Old Regime, represents a signal contribution to our understanding of the monarchy. Indeed, the author's meticulous examination of the financing of royal justice will prove invaluable to all students of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France.
Julius R. Ruff, Professor and Acting Chairman, Department of History, Marquette University Albert Hamscher's impressive study of the 'costs of justice' for criminal cases prosecuted at royal expense in early modern France stands securely on his astute tracking of the combined daily practices of key institutions—judicial, administrative, and financial—that were engaged in the complex system.
Sarah Hanley, University of Iowa Show Less