Comté de Namur - Livre Noir - 1790

BLACK BOOK, SECRET ARCHIVE: THE SHADOWS OF AUSTRIAN RULE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
An article of extraordinary historical-political interest, Livre noir du comté de Namur fits into the heated climate at the end of the 18th century, when the territories of the Austrian Netherlands were permeated by institutional tensions and revolutionary drives. This volume collects and disseminates official correspondence of the Austrian government in Brussels, turning itself into a tool of denunciation and political memory. The very title, “Black Book,” evokes a nearly judicial and esoteric dimension: an archive of uncomfortable truths, destined to expose power dynamics and opaque administrative practices. The copy, preserved in its uncased state and in an era-appropriate softcover, retains the material and documentary charm of a publication designed for rapid circulation in a context of political urgency.
MARKET VALUE
Complete copies in similar condition (uncased and in the original softcover) are relatively rare on the market and range from 200 to 500 euros. Higher values can occur for well-preserved copies with significant provenance.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Hardcover binding in a contemporaneous softcover. Decorated paper with spotted motifs on the cover, typical of late-18th-century bindings in waiting. Margin leaves untouched. In old books with a multi-century history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 4nn; 140; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Livre noir du comté de Namur, ou Correspondance du ci-devant gouvernement autrichien de Bruxelles; avec ses agents subalternes dans le comté de Namur.
Bruxelles, chez Lemaire, 1790.
S.A.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Published in the crucial year 1790, during the brief experience of the United Belgian States and in the midst of uprisings against Austrian rule, the Livre noir represents a document of primary political importance. The work collects letters, dispatches, and administrative communications of the Austrian government, offering a direct glimpse into how power operated in the empire’s peripheral territories. The editorial choice to publish such correspondence reflects a polemical and revelatory intent: to turn the archive into a political weapon. The text thus sits at the crossroads of pamphlet, official document, and propaganda instrument, contributing to the construction of a critical memory of imperial administration. In this sense, the “black book” also takes on symbolic value: a catalog of guilt, omissions, and strategies, almost a secular grimoire of bureaucratic power.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
An anonymous work, likely attributable to a political and editorial milieu close to the revolutionary circles of the Austrian Netherlands. The publication of governmental documents suggests access to internal sources or to semi-clandestine diffusion networks typical of periods of institutional crisis.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed in Brussels by Lemaire in 1790, the text belongs to a rapid and contingent editorial production linked to immediate political events. It is not a luxury edition, but a book designed for circulation and active reading, often distributed in an uncased form. The survival of complete copies in original condition is today relatively limited, also due to intensive use and the militant nature of the work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU/OPAC SBN: to be verified (1790 Brussels edition, Lemaire)
WorldCat: multiple listings for the 1790 edition, Brussels
Catalogue général BnF: Brussels edition, 1790 (bibliographic notice to be confirmed with complete collatio of the exemplar)
Studies on the Brabant Revolt and the United Belgian States: see J. Craeybeckx, Les États belgiques unis (1790), Brussels
Repositories of revolutionary printing in the Austrian Netherlands: data to be supplemented with precise verification of signatures and the complete collatio of the exemplar.