page_title: Paris in the 17th century
section_title: Parisians
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in the 17th century / Parisians
caption_attribution_description: English: "Rustica Parisii villageoise du Parisis" on the map of Paris by Claes Jansz. Visscher.
context_page_description: Paris in the 17th century was the largest city in Europe, with a population of half a million, matched in size only by London. It was ruled in turn by three monarchs; Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, and saw the building of some of the city's most famous parks and monuments, including the Pont Neuf, the Palais Royal, the newly joined Louvre and Tuileries Palace, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Garden. It was also a flourishing center of French science and the arts; it saw the founding of the Paris Observatory, the French Academy of Sciences and the first botanical garden in Paris, which also became the first park in Paris open to the public. The first permanent theater opened, the Comédie-Française was founded, and the first French opera and French ballets had their premieres. Paris became the home of the new Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and of some of France's most famous writers, including Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, La Fontaine and Moliere. Urban innovations for the city included the first street lighting, the first public transport, the first building code, and the first new aqueduct since Roman times.
context_section_description: There was no official census of the city's population in the 17th century, but, using tax records, the amount of wheat consumed and church baptism records,  modern historians estimate that it increased from about 300,000 in 1600 to 415,000 in 1637 to about 500,000 in about 1680.  An account published in 1665 by Lemaire estimated that there were 23,000 houses in Paris, each inhabited by an average of twenty persons.
  Paris society was structured in a formal and rigid hierarchy.  At the top were the nobles, known as personnes de qualité, meaning that they had no profession, unlike the artisans and merchants.  They were subdivided into four categories;  the highest were the titled nobility, gentlemen of the royal chamber and marshals of France, who had the titles of duke, marquis, comte, and baron.  Just below them were those with the lesser rank of chevalier or seigneur.
  The third level of nobles who held their title because of their function, as members of the highest bodies of state, the Parlement of Paris, the Grand Council, the Chambre des comptes, and the Cour des Aides.  They were known as the Noblesse de la Grand Robe, the high nobility of the robe, because of the ceremonial costumes they wore. They usually purchased their titles, but once acquired they became hereditary. Below them were nobles of the petit robe, with high positions in the less important government bodies and less impressive ceremonial costumes.  Below them, at the lowest edge of the nobility, were the ecuyers;  some were from the ancient nobility, but many more recent arrivals, who had purchased a title or position at court.  The members of the nobility of all levels usually had their own town houses, and most lived in the Marais, and later, on the newly created Île Saint-Louis and Faubourg Saint-Germain.
  Just below the nobles and ecuyers but above the bourgeois were the notables, who were largely officials in the lesser government structures;  officials in the treasury, royal accountants, and lawyers at the Parlement or other high courts.  The notables but included prominent doctors and a few highly successful artists, including Claude Vignon and Simon Vouet.  Just below the 
  notables were those Parisians entitled to be called Maître;  lawyers, notaries, and procureurs.
  Below the notables and Maîtres was a far larger class, the Bourgeoisie or middle class,  which was equally divided into categories.  At the top were the Honorable hommes, a category which included the most successful merchants, artisans who had ten or fifteen employees, and a considerable number of successful painters, sculptors and engravers.   Below them were the marchands or merchants,  successful members of all the different professions.  Twenty percent had their own shops.  Below them were the maîtres and then the compagnons,  craftsmen who had finished their apprenticeships.  They usually lived in a single room, and were often not far above poverty.
  Below the craftsmen and artisans was the largest class of Parisians;  domestic servants, manual workers with no special qualifications, laborers, prostitutes, street sellers, rag-pickers, and a hundred other trades,  with no certain income. They lived a very precarious existence.
caption: A Parisienne selling brooms
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