La Reggenza di Filippo II d'Orléans (1715-23) e la fisiologia dell'Ancien Régime

Firstly, this article analyses two monographs (La Régence absolue. Philippe d’Orléans et la Polysynodie, 2011; Paris ou Versailles? La monarchie absolue entre deux capitales, 2015) which, in the wake of the suggestions previously put forward by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, propose a new interpretation of the Regency of Philip II d’Orléans (1715-23). Rejecting two antithetical ideas – the one that saw in the Regency nothing more than an artifice aimed at masking the unchanged reality of absolute power, and the one according to which it was the prologue to the Revolution, Dupilet and Lemarchand identify in the work of Philip of Orleans an emblematic proof of the composite nature – both exécutive and délibérative – of the French political system. As a consequence, they represent the Ancien Régime as a historical path in which contrôle and ouverture intertwined rather than opposing and alternating. Then, taking this specific revision as a starting point, the article proposes a more general historiographical overview aimed at problematizing paradigms such as «modern state» and «absolutism».