¹ Part of this correspondence was first published by Ph., Robiquet in his Buonarroti et la secte des Egaux d'après des documents inédits (Paris 1910),Google Scholar an unsatisfactory edition since superseded by Saitta's, Armando splendid Filippo Buonarroti: contributo alla storia della sua vita e del suo pensiero (Roma 1949; 2nd enlarged ed., Roma 1972, vol. II, pp. 73–85, 203–204, 212–218, 230–231).Google Scholar Alessandro, Galante Garrone added considerably to the understanding of this “corrispondenza misteriosa, e in gran parte cifrata”. Of both published and unpublished letters he noted: “Molte allusioni restano oscure, e molti pseudonimi indecifrabili. Conviene pertanto, allo stato attuale delle ricerche, astenersi da ipotesi troppo arrischiate, e ricavare dalla lettura probabile che se ne può ricavare senza abuso di congetture.“ (Filippo Buonarroti e i rivoluzionari dell'ottocento (1828–1837), Torino 1951; 2nd en-larged ed., Torino 1972, p. 60).Google Scholar

² Teste had an adopted son named Charles Lemaire; see Julien, Kuypers, Les Egalitaires en Belgique: Buonarroti et ses sociétés secrètes d'après des documents inédits 1824–1836 (Bruxelles 1960), p. 144.Google Scholar

³ Conspiration pour l'Egalité dite de Babeuf, suivie du procès auquel elle donna lieu, et des pièces justificatives, etc., etc., 2 vols (Bruxelles: Librairie Romantique, 1828).Google Scholar References here are to the edition established by Robert, Brécy and Albert, Soboul, and prefaced by Georges Lefebvre, 2 vols (Paris 1957).Google Scholar

⁴ Roberts, J.M., The Mythology of the Secret Societies (Frogmore, St Albans 1974), p. 356.Google Scholar

⁵ On the Monde, see Saitta, , I, ch. III; and II, pp. 133–167 (program document).Google Scholar

⁶ Saitta rightly stressed the structural analogy as distinct from any historical influence (I, pp. 148–152). On the Illuminati, see now Manfred, Agethen, Geheimbund und Utopie: Illuminaten, Freimaurer und deutsche Spätaufklärung (München 1984).Google Scholar

⁷ Conspiration, pp. 212–215. See also Saitta, , I, pp. 84–89.Google Scholar

⁸ On Saint-Simonism in general Sébastien Charléty's often reprinted dissertation, Histoire du Saint-Simonisme 1825–1864 (Paris 1896),Google Scholar remains valuable. See also Jean, Walch, Bibliographie du Saint-Simonisme (Paris 1967).Google Scholar

⁹ Not a few of his adherents, and not the least of them, eventually went over to SaintSimonism; see Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, pp. 408–416.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Teste's biography is partly known through Félix Delhasse, see Kuypers, , pp. 142–144.Google Scholar See also Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français, publ. sous la direction de Jean, Maitron, vol. 3 (Paris 1966), pp. 438–439.Google Scholar

¹¹ In 1822 a Charles Teste was among the leaders of the Rite de Misraïm, a dissident high-grade masonic order shortly after dissolved by the police; see Arthur, Lehning, From Buonarroti to Bakunin: studies in international socialism (Leiden 1970), p. 286.Google Scholar It may have been Charles-Antoine. His brothers, baron François-Antoine, a general of Bonaparte, and Jean-Baptiste, a future minister of Louis-Philippe, both were members, as was the Due Decazes; see Pierre, Chevallier, Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie française, II: la Maçonnerie missionnaire du libéralisme 1800–1877 (Paris 1974), p. 139.Google Scholar

¹² Alan, B. Spitzer, Old Hatreds and Young Hopes: the French Carbonari against the Bourbon Restoration (Cambridge, Mass. 1971), p. 309.Google Scholar

¹³ Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, p. 16. – According to the Dictionnaire biographique (p. 438) Teste played a role in the founding of the republican newspaper La Tribune des Départements, which first appeared on 8 June 1829. But Georges Weill dates his involvement with the paper from the efforts to refound it after it ceased publication in October 1829; Teste failed to become gérant of the Tribune, which reappeared on 28 April 1830 under its former editors; see Histoire du Parti républicain en France 1814–1870 (Paris 1928), p. 19.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Uranelt de Leuze [Laurent], Réfutation de l'Histoire de France de l'abbé de Montgaillard. After 1848 Laurent (1793–1877) was known as Laurent de l'Ardéche. On 20 August 1828 Buonarroti commented favorably on Laurent and his book in a letter to Emile Babeuf published by Maurice, Dommanget, Sur Babeuf et la Conjuration des Egaux (Paris 1970), p. 376.Google Scholar – See also Galante Garrone, A., “I Sansimoniani e la storia della Rivoluzione francese”, in: Rivista Storica Italiana, vol. LXI, 1949, pp. 351–378.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, p. 17.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Buonarroti to Teste, 6 08 1829; Saitta, , II, p. 73.Google Scholar Buonarroti continued: “Je sais que monsieur Jacob et monsieur Charles, mes bons amis, vous ont entretenu de moi […]” The noms de guerre have never been satisfactorily solved. Saitta's identification of Jacob with Voyer d'Argenson (I, p. 91) was rejected, on good grounds it seems, by Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, p. 61, 89.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The invitation was contained in the letter of 6 August 1829. On 20 August Buonarroti told Teste he would be welcome “au plus tard í la moitié de septembre”, urging him to advance the date as much as possible and to stay several days (Saitta, II, p. 74). Teste was back in Paris on 17 October at the latest, when he wrote to Buonarroti as mentioned in our text.

¹⁸ See Saitta, , I, p. 92;Google Scholar Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, p. 63.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Published by Saitta, , II, pp. 212–218.Google Scholar The text is analyzed in detail by Saitta, , I, pp. 164–168;Google Scholar and by Galante, Garrone, Filippo Buonarroti, pp. 40–49.Google Scholar

²⁰ In the letter of 16 April 1830 the argument is repeated as follows: “Est ce d'ailleurs un véritable progès que la substitution du servage [‖] í l'esclavage proprément dit? Les serfs du régime féodal sont ils, réellement, plus heureux que les esclaves de l'antiquité et de l'islamisme? sous le rapport de Ia liberté il me semble que les uns n'ont pas beaucoup í envier aux autres, car si l'on voit dans nos vieilles croniques des serfs élevés aux dignités ecclésiastiques, on y voit aussi que les seigneurs se fesoient rendre ceux qui avoient obtenu la tonsure sans leur consentement. Il y a d'ailleurs une circonstance qui ne permet pas de faire pencher la balance plus d'un côté que de l'autre, et pas même en faveur de la condition de la plupart des manoeuvres salariés des temps modernes; la voici: le mître de l'esclave a beaucoup plus d'intérét a conserver les forces de son esclave que le seigneur ou le propriétaire n' d'intérêt í ménager celles du serf ou du salarié.” (Saitta, , II, p. 217).Google Scholar

²¹ The letter of 16 April 1830 asks: “[…;] est il prouvé que depuis les tems connus le genre humain a constamment marché d'échelon en échelon vers la perfection? Grande question qui en embrasse beaucoup d'autres, et dont la solution dans un sens affirmatif pourroit présenter un côté nullement favorable aux intérêts futurs et réels de l'humanité; en effet í quoi bon chercher í améliorer par nos efforts l'état social puisque par une espèce de fatalité la société fait continuellement des progrés et doit, d'ordre divin, atteindre la perfection?” (Saitta, , II, p. 215).Google Scholar

²² Saitta, , II, p. 161.Google Scholar

²³ Ibid., p. 139. “Société” is one of several possible readings for a colon inside a semicircle in the original manuscript.

²⁴ See Agethen, ch. IV.

²⁵ See notably L'Empire knouto-germanique et la revolution sociale, now in Archives Bakounine, vol. VII, ed. Lehning, Arthur (Leiden 1981).Google Scholar

²⁶ Maurice, Dommanget, “Buonarroti et Blanqui”, in Babeuf et lesproblêmes du babouvisme (Paris 1963), p. 244.Google Scholar

²⁷ In the original: “tes spéculations de commerce”. Although this might theoretically refer to business affairs it was quite common among nineteenth century conspirators to indicate in this way clandestine operations.

²⁸ Publication of the Paris weekly l'Organisateur, a “journal des Progrés de la Science générale, avec un appendice sur les méthodes et les découvertes relatives í l'enseignement” according to the prospectus, had been announced in July 1829 by Laurent. The first issue appeared on August 15. - On 19 November Buonarroti repeated to Teste: “'oublie pas l'organisateur et les détails que tu m'as promis.” (Saitta, , II, p. 74).Google Scholar

²⁹ In the original: “industriels”, Saint-Simon's term.

³⁰ No doubt “notre ami Henry qui t'accompagna a la voiture”, as mentioned by Buonarroti to Teste on 22 February 1830 (Saitta, , II, p. 78).Google Scholar Several names have been proposed to identify “Henry”, of which Guglielmo, Francinetti, suggested by Galante, Garrone (Filippo Buonarrori, pp. 474–475), seems the most plausible choice.Google Scholar