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University College London

Geneva Documents

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0103 MS PHILL 3

Held at: University College London

Title: Geneva Documents

Date(s): 18th century

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 1 volume containing 161 leaves

Name of creator(s): Unknown

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Geneva lies in the southwestern corner of Switzerland which juts into France. The city is capital of the canton of Geneva. From the 11th century to the Reformation, Geneva was ruled by its bishops. By the end of the Middle Ages it had developed into an important economic centre, its fairs reaching their peak in the 15th century and giving it an international reputation. Its independence was threatened by the princes of Savoy, who from the 13th to the 17th century made unsuccessful attempts to force the city into submission. In the early 16th century, when the threat was greatest, the city's autonomy was saved by the intervention of the Swiss cantons of Fribourg and Bern. Following the Reformation, the city became a republic in 1535. The centre of the Calvinist Reformation, it was cut off politically and culturally from other Protestant areas by Roman Catholic France and Savoy adjacent, and established a network of intellectual and economic relationships with other parts of Europe and with nations overseas, from which it developed as a distinctively cosmopolitan city. From 1550 onwards, persecuted Protestants, mainly French and Italian, migrated to Geneva and influenced its religious and intellectual history and economic development, the economy having been in recession since the decline of the fairs after the 15th century. A second wave of refugees fled to Geneva following Louis XIV's persecution of the French Protestants at the end of the 17th century. The 18th century was a period of prosperity during which industries, notably horology, and business and banking flourished. However, there was political and social agitation and the Geneva revolution of 1792 brought down the aristocratic government of the ancien régime. Geneva was annexed by France in 1798, but its freedom was restored in 1813 and entry into the Swiss Confederation was granted in 1815. A revolution in 1846 overthrew the government of the Restoration and established a constitution still in force today. Geneva continued to accept political refugees in the 19th and early 20th century.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Manuscript volume containing a collection of 18th-century documents relating to Geneva.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: French and German

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Normal copyright restrictions apply.

Physical characteristics:

Paper manuscript bound in half vellum with marbled boards. Several documents, varying in size, hand and script, bound together, with some loose papers. 36cm.

Finding aids:

Dorothy K Coveney, A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of University College London (London, 1935); handlist at University College London Special Collections.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

The manuscript belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), baronet, an antiquary and bibliophile whose collection included c60,000 manuscripts of various kinds, some relating to the administration of Swiss towns. Various manuscripts were sold after Sir Thomas's death, some to the German government, and were dispersed to several libraries. Formerly Phillipps MS 1180.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The Phillipps Manuscripts at University College London were given to the College by the German government in 1912.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica online; website http://geneva.ch. Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.