Abstract: This article uses Edmond-Jean-François Barbier's journal, written from 1718 to 1763, to reassess the idea that Louis XV's growing unpopularity laid the foundations for revolution in 1789. While debate around "desacralization" has focused on the king's sacred body, this essay argues that Barbier and the public he reported on were more anxious about Louis's corporeality. Changing emotional sensibilities and medical knowledge made the king's embodied character and health a crucial measure of his fitness to rule. Public scrutiny of Louis reveals not a steady process of disillusionment, but fluctuating hope that he would meet demanding ideals of kingship.
Christophe Gillain (Sun,) studied this question.