Royal Almanac

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The Royal Almanac is a French administrative directory founded in 1683 by the bookseller Laurent d'Houry, which appeared under this title from 1700 to 1792, and under other titles until 1919.

He presented each year in the official order of precedence, the list of members of the royal family of France, the princes of blood, and the main body of the kingdom, great crown officers, senior clerics, abbots of large abbeys (with income of each abbey), marshals of France, colonels and general officers, ambassadors and consuls of France, presidents of the main courts, state councilors, bankers, etc..

Despite the fact that it could appear indigestible because of the many lists that it contained, the publication enjoyed a wide circulation with a readership consisting primarily of financiers, politicians, and all persons who had an interest in knowing the administrative organization of France.

Although his edition is due to the initiative of a private publisher, included in the lists of the Almanac was a royal official and abuse were therefore punished. Thus, a Poitevin, Pierre Joly, was interned in the Bastille at the end of the eighteenth century to have usurped the banking profession by being registered as such in the Almanach Royal.

His edition was in regular format in-8 o editor with a binder leather adorned with a sprinkling of fleur de lys gold.