'That other historian, the illustrator': Voices and vignettes in mid-nineteenth century France

Neo-Classical historians had employed a visual model of historiography, 'lo oking back' at the past from a 'luminous point of view' far enough away fro m events so that they could perceive their context and significance. In con trast, Thierry, Michelet, and other liberals and Romantics employed an aura l model to evoke a 'Spirit of the Age,' resurrecting a culture's point of v iew to effect a spiritual metamorphosis in the modern reader-viewer. They e ncouraged their reader/viewers to function as colleagues rather than pupils , to 'read for themselves.' Such a viewpoint seemed to pose an insurmountab le challenge to historical representation at precisely the moment (after th e passage of the Loi Guizot in 1833) when the national campaign for literac y and historical knowledge mandated an increasing reliance on illustrated t exts. Theodose Burette's Histoire de France depuis l'etablissement des Fran cs dans la Gaule jusque'en 1830 (1840) enabled the past to 'speak for itsel f,' his publisher asserted, through a productive union of its text with mor e than 500 illustrations by Jules David, 'that other historian, the illustr ator.' Their ground-breaking work would influence historical narration and illustration for the next thirty years, to the 'histoires populaires' of He nri Martin and Victor Duruy in the Second Empire.