Jean-Baptiste Primi Visconti, a courtier at the court of Louis XIV

Jean-Baptiste Primi Félicien Visconti Fassola de Rasa, Count of Saint-Mayol, this is the full name, after many adventures, of the one that historians retain today under that of Primi Visconti. If his Memoirs, as we will see, are well-known to those who study the reign of Louis XIV, his life is a little less so. However, the man from Piedmont turns out to have been a skillful adventurer who made his fortune, in the etymological sense, at the French court, before experiencing some pseudo-legal problems. The fact remains that he was a keen observer of his adopted country, where he remained from 1673 until the end of his life, after a brief return to his native lands…

For a long time, among historians, there was confusion between the doctor Domenico Amonio (1653-1721) and Primi Visconti (1648-1713), making the two men the same person. This is what emerges in particular from an “Anecdote on Abbot Primi” taken up in the Works of Louis XIV published in 1806 and which assimilates the first to the second, while developing a story which concerns the latter… as well as Jean-François Solnon, to describe the beautiful figure and success of Primi Visconti at the court of France, does not hesitate to cite a letter from Madame de Sévigné to her daughter dated May 6, 1676, in which the marquise mentions “ a man of twenty-eight, whose face is the most charming I have ever seen. He has eyes like Madame Mazarin and perfect teeth, the rest of his face as one imagines Rinaldo, large black curls which give him the most pleasant face you can imagine. » Age matches. However, Roger Duchêne, annotator of the correspondence, never mentions Primi Visconti but rather Amonio... Our character does not lack success and it is he who, in his Memoirs, mentions it in 1674, shortly after he arrived in Paris: “I no longer had a moment to stay at home; everyone was looking for me and, the rumor had spread that I was staying at the Hôtel de Vendôme, I was there, from morning to evening, literally besieged. »

An Italian adventurer…

How did an obscure Italian become the darling of all Paris? Let’s go back in time a bit… Giovanni Battista Fassola was born on September 22, 1648, in Varallo Sesia, in the province of Vercelli, to honorable merchant parents. The death of his father when he was barely four years old abruptly stopped his upward mobility and, above all, created tensions within the family. By purchasing a canonical office, the young man initially intended for an ecclesiastical career (which he definitively renounced in 1676), before turning to a literary career. But, more than the novel, as we will see, it is the story that truly interests him. Intra-family quarrels between his brothers and uncles were linked to his father's inheritance, but above all, the murder of a tax collector perpetrated by close relatives pushed him into exile at the end of 1672. He passed through Switzerland and reached “Lyon on the day of the Epiphany [1673]” as he wrote at the very beginning of his Memoirs. It was during his journey from Lyon to Paris in a stagecoach that he made the first connections that would prove useful later. In particular, he made the trip with a man named Borgion, a “virtuous and mature man” who served as his interpreter, Primi still only being able to be heard in Latin. Recalling his previous travels, he comes to "discourse on astronomy, astrology, physiognomy and other similar sciences", subjects which fascinate his interlocutor. It was during this journey that the Italian traveler demonstrated divinatory gifts with two passengers. As Primi writes, “The whole company remained astonished and I was the first astonished to have guessed correctly.”

…at the court of France

Thanks to his various supports and his ecclesiastical network, he was received with dignity in Paris by the abbot of Sainte-Geneviève, who gave him an apartment but also “a secretary to assist [him] and show [him] the city and the Court”. He therefore went as quickly as possible to the Château de Saint-Germain in February 1673 to discover the Court and the king, to whom he bowed. It is there that he meets Father del Carretto, with whom he establishes a deep friendship which will be very useful to him in strengthening his relationships. From then on, he returned regularly to the Court where he amassed many juicy anecdotes which he would later use to write his Memoirs. Through his meetings, but also because of his successful divinatory experiments which reached Paris, Primi Visconti was summoned by two great lords of the Court, followers of “occult sciences”: the Dukes of Brissac and Nevers. To the Duke of Nevers who told him that we notice "extraordinary things among the demoniacs of Italy that we do not observe in Paris", Primi retorts that "this comes from the imbecility of men, who, in Italy, believe such things because the Inquisition accredits them, and who, in Paris, do not believe them because Parliament ridicules them.” It is true that since 1640, in France, people have no longer been prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft and the criminal procedure ordinance of 1670 even banished the principle from the judicial system.

As we can see, Primi doesn’t take his “gifts” seriously and instead has fun with them. However, it is these so-called talents that open the doors to all of high society for him. Borgion, his traveling companion, did not forget him and presented him in several Parisian salons, receptions to which his Memoirs for the year 1674 greatly testify. It was during one of these meetings, with the president of Onsembray, which caused the most sensation. Questioned about the author of a letter whose name is kept secret, Primi then paints a moral portrait that screams truth, not without adding that he was injured in the head, which the hostess denies, "when a young girl enters the room, bringing letters where we can read that d'Arcy has just been wounded in the head by a musket shot near Besançon. Then she exclaims: “Ah! sir, you are a magician!” » It didn't take long for the scene to spread. The memoirist writes: “There was a crowd at this lady's house whose mood and manners attracted everyone's sympathy, and she was also so talkative that in a moment, all of Paris burned with the desire to see me, I was a past prophet! I soon had my entry into the first and best houses. » And Primi to become intimate, in addition to those already mentioned, of the Marquis de La Vallière, brother of the former royal favorite, of the Count of Gramont, of the Knight of Vendôme, of the Countess of Soissons…

The Royal Family Soothsayer

His reputation, earned in the art of knowing how to read the future through the letters presented to him, earned him the attention of the entire royal family who asked to meet him. This is the case with the queen, “who is very curious about predictions and who believes in them” or even with Monsieur, brother of Louis XIV, who questions her about her various illnesses. Suggesting headaches, which his interlocutor denies, Primi Visconti, remembering “what was said in whispers about [the prince]” retorts “that he [must] be subject to hemorrhoids”. These predictions, we see, are only made by conjectures or by memories of things heard. However, the Italian courtier never seeks to mislead his audience; thus, to Monsieur who asks him for a remedy for his illness, he responds straight away that he “is neither a doctor nor an astrologer, that everything he does is for fun”. While he had attended the king's supper at the Grand Couvert a few days previously, Louis '[he was doing it] was just for fun'. However, the sovereign, with the idea of ​​flattering him and putting himself in the ladies’ opinion, “maintained that [he was] a scholar and praised [him] as a gallant man. » The divinatory talent of Primi Visconti, dubbed by the monarch himself, attracts all the flatterers of the Court who stick to him like flies, “because it is enough for the King to open his mouth and speak of someone to let him immediately be sought after as a saint or kept apart as one who is damned.”

Legal concerns?

Primi Visconti doesn’t think he’s saying that well. On July 15, 1682, Louis XIV gave the order to arrest him and take him to the Bastille. At the same time, the Marquis de Seignelay, son of Grand Colbert, doubled the king's letter and wrote to Gabriel-Nicolas de La Reynie, lieutenant general of police, to indicate to him the royal intentions "regarding Primi's book, to what [he has] nothing to add, except to recommend [him] diligence on this occasion.” What is it about? Primi Visconti has just published a History of the Dutch War. It seems that the Italian courtier went a little too far in his search for truth and revealed state secrets since he mentioned in his book the secret Treaty of Dover, signed in 1670 (see box).

The authorities immediately asked for the publication to be stopped, but also for the seizure of all copies. Indeed Colbert wrote to La Reynie on July 21: “You will find attached the judgment for the suppression of the History of the Dutch War, composed by Primi-Visconti. Please send me the manuscripts you found at his house. »Simultaneously, Louis that you immediately go to the house of the bookseller who printed it and that of the said Primi-Visconti, and that you seize all the copies you find, wanting them to be destroyed. »As we are not in a criminal case, the seals affixed to the Italians' papers were lifted on July 29 and Seignelay specified to La Reynie on the same date that "S.M. did not have him arrested to make him her trial, but simply to make it known that she does not approve of the History he has made.”

This History... would however have been written, if not for that of the sovereign, at the pressing request of several close to the monarch such as his private secretary Toussaint Rose. Primi Visconti therefore lent himself, consciously or unconsciously, neither more nor less to diplomatic power games. While Charles II of England attempted a rapprochement with Holland and its stadtholder William of Orange, sworn enemy of Louis XIV, France found nothing better than to reveal the links that united the crown of the Bourbons to that of the Stuarts by publishing, under cover of an author's indiscretions, the secret treaty of 1670. Through it, France undertook to pay three million pounds annually in exchange for military support on the sea against the United Provinces. But peace was proclaimed in 1678 and Charles II, the author of Anecdotes on Abbot Primi tells us, “after having for twelve years received money and served the ambition of France, had known the danger of these connections, and only acted in the interest of his nation and parliament. […] To disturb it [the union], we imagined publishing the French translation of the history of the last war by Abbot Primi, in which he gave far too explanatory details on the negotiation, the secret treaty, and Madame’s journey to Dover in 1670.” The revelations are therefore not fortuitous, but cleverly calculated to irritate the English government. England immediately learned of the publication and Louis XIV feigned surprise at the discovery of the work presented to him by Croissy, brother of Colbert and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

England was not fooled by the maneuver and knew full well that, as John Darymple reported in his Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland... published in 1775, "despite France's disavowal, they were persuaded that Father Primi had only lent him, or rather sold him, his pen.” In fact, despite the Italian’s imprisonment, “it seemed that he was only punished for having published it [the book] out of season; because he was freed a few months later with cash and a pension. Moreover, he himself said that the ministers had been ordered to send him memoirs. Primi Visconti, however, remained in the Bastille until January 1683…

A keen observer of the French court

After this prison stay, which ultimately resulted in a royal pension, Primi returned to his country of origin for the family business but also to become regent general of the valleys of Sesia. The administrative experience was short-lived and he returned to Paris in December 1684 thanks to the intervention of the French ambassador in Turin. This return also allows him to find a lady he greatly appreciates. In 1678, after a few moments of love at first sight, whether they materialized or not, he fell under the spell of a young bride: Marguerite Léonard, wife of Charles Herbin, master at the Chamber of Accounts. Attracted by the young man's reputation, the twenty-three-year-old woman then intends to know his future: not only does Primi Visconti tell her that she will be a widow within six months (which is indeed happening) but also that she will marry a prince who, according to the Italian, is none other than himself! The two protagonists did not forget these consultations and, after Primi's return to Paris at the end of 1684, they began a complicated relationship because Marguerite was the daughter of Frédéric Léonard, one of the most important printer-booksellers in the Paris market who doesn't want to hear about this affair with a foreign adventurer. She is therefore rich in her father's funds but also those of her late husband... Against all odds, they finally married in May 1687 after Primi Visconti received his naturalization letters. The wedding witnesses are not strangers: there is the Marquis de Dangeau or the Abbé de Choisy, both history buffs...

If he signs his marriage contract under the name of “Messire Jean-Baptiste-Primi-Félicien Visconte, knight, Count of Fassola de Saint-Maïole, Regent general of the valleys of Sésia, Italian gentleman naturalized French” (names and titles that Frédéric Léonard firmly challenges him with a factum), since his first arrival in France in 1673, the man has already used several names: Abbot Primi, Primi Visconti, Count of Saint-Mayol, Count Fassola or even Count of Rassa. This onomastic multiplicity testifies to a certain literary desire to which the man who was simply born Giovanni Battista Fassola has always aspired since his youth. Although he wrote a novel in 1676 (La Rassolina), it was primarily journalism that Primi had turned to until then. He published a few articles here and there in his region of origin and tried his luck when he arrived in France, but he encountered firm opposition from the directors of the Gazette de France. What interests him is working as a historian. He threw himself headlong into writing history, wanting to supplant the official historiographers such as Racine, Pellisson, and Boileau.

His Memoirs are a tiny part of his writings as the Italians have multiplied the works. However, it is these first ones that attract all the attention of historians today, both for their achievement and their acuity. Concerning the years 1673-1681, they are especially interested in filling a gap in the Louisquatorzian sources before the great stories of the memoirists Sourches and Dangeau, which cover the periods 1681-1712 and 1684-1720 respectively. Likewise, they provide incisive and uncompromising portraits of the main characters of the Court, whether those of the royal family or those of the great courtiers. If he shows a certain admiration for the sovereign when he sees him for the first time ("I saw the King while he was going to mass and although I had not yet seen him and he was then lost in the crowd of courtiers, I recognized him immediately. He indeed had a tall and majestic appearance and his tall height and presence meant that in the eyes of all he would have deserved to be King if he had not been"), he quickly counterbalances the portrait by evoking his "despotism", after his takeover of personal power: "However, he has moderated since he took the reins of government, but, in his very moderation, he remained terrible. We also saw sonnets circulating stating that the French had asked heaven for a king during the space of nineteen years [sic], during which it was believed that the Queen was sterile, God had given them, like the Israelites, a Saul severe, such as Dieudonné, a name he bears with that of Louis. […] In reality, according to all my observations, everything was well submissive, and never in France did we feel a more despotic authority. »

Beyond the major events of the time – mainly linked to the Dutch War – Primi Visconti above all engages in a true sociological analysis of the Court, making portraits of ministers and mistresses – whether they are in disgrace ( Mlle de La Vallière), at their peak (Mme de Montespan) or in the making (Mme de Maintenon) –, or even those of her competitors in the writing of the history of the reign. Racine, who is “in fashion,” is “very pedantic,” while Boileau, “his [Racine’s] inseparable companion,” is “a man of judgment.” The Italian thinks that there is a place to be taken among those we call "the philosophers", especially, he reports, since for the king all these stories written by his historiographers are not that “gazettes, gazettes”…

Despite these words attributed to Louis in the bibliography of historians.

Letter from Ambassador Foscarini to the Doge

“An Italian, named Primi, who gives himself the title of Count of Saint-Mayol, having put in print the History of the Dutch War, the work passed through the censorship and the work approved when he expected to receive some testimony of royal munificence, was conducted to the Bastille; this comes from the fact that he inserted the result of the negotiation made at Dover by the late Duchess of Orléans with her brother the King of England, in which the author claims that France was committed to -vis the English sovereign to help him consolidate royal authority, by lowering parliament, to introduce the Catholic religion into the three kingdoms, to wage war together against Holland and to share the spoils of this republic; Zeeland would have remained with the King of England, Holland would have been given in sovereignty to the House of Orange, and the rest to France. […]” (letter from Ambassador Foscarini to Contarini, doge of Venice, from Paris on July 22, 1682, Archives of Venice – translated from Italian – and reproduced in the Archives of the Bastille).