Justice, Writing and Literature After the Work of Dame Cornet (Marseille, Second Half of the Eighteenth Century)

Abstract

We propose to study in this paper some very interesting legal briefs, both in their form and in their purpose, to show that their rhetorical construction is strongly influenced by the literature, which provides to the legal tale its effectiveness.

To capture the richness and diversity of these judicial archives, we propose to study a trial which involved members of the elite of Marseilles. As a real domestic war, this conflict set two people against each other: a Venetian consul accusing his wife of adultery and his wife replying by accusing him of abusing her and wanting to despoil her of her property. Social quality of the parties and the importance of networks (relatives, friends, neighbours, lawyers) who support them respectively, gives to this case an unexpected turn, leaving the private sphere to make an intrusion into the public sphere and extends beyond the city of Marseilles.