Today, we never go out without.
Whether recorded on our phone or written by hand, the travel certificate, like the mask, has become essential, under penalty of a fine of 135 euros.
But contrary to what one might think, this pass system adopted during an epidemic is not new.
On social networks, many Internet users have wondered, in recent days, about the authenticity of these certificates from another era.
An archive from 1720
One of these travel certificates, relayed in all more than 10,000 times on Facebook, was actually written on November 4, 1720.
Screenshot taken on Facebook on 19/11/20 / DR
This document, sold by the Parisian bookstore
Traces Ecrites,
was spotted in April by Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu, teacher-researcher at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, who shared it on his Twitter account.
Exceptional exit certificate: an archeology.
[1720, Remoulin, Gard].
#CultureChezNous # Covid19 #TeamChartistes pic.twitter.com/DXJ6uGeb69
- Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu (@ferrerbartomeu) April 22, 2020
Resembling the travel certificates implemented in 2020, this paper has a printed part, while the personal information has been completed in a handwritten way.
When it is published, it goes around the world and is shared on Italian, Chinese, and even Arabic sites.
The archive authorizes a certain Alexandre Coulomb to leave his village of Remoulins, in the Gard where there is "no suspicion of Contagious Disease", to go to Blauzac, a neighboring town.
"In the 18th century, we circulate little and we are wary of foreigners, especially in times of epidemic", says Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu.
However, in 1720, a new episode of plague, which will cause more than 100,000 deaths, devastates the population.
Faced with this endemic disease, the risks of contagion are numerous, and medicine cannot treat the sick.
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"With this paper, we declare that the city where this man comes from is not infected by the disease more than the man himself", continues the teacher-researcher.
He specifies that the use of these passes was not however generalized and remained quite exceptional, within the framework of missions, and so that the king can better monitor his population in a context of repression.
The certificate also indicates that Alexandre Coulomb is "twenty-eight years old", is of "mediocre height" (average) and has "brown hair".
One way, according to Jérémie Ferrer-Bastomeu, to be able to identify travelers, when identity papers did not yet exist.
Emmanuel Lorient, the manager of the bookstore which sold the archive, confides today “no longer remembering the origin of this certificate”, as he has “several thousand documents”.
After the message from the teacher-researcher on Twitter, the travel certificate, put on sale in February 2019 without much success, attracted many buyers and was finally sold for 500 euros to a Breton.
Parody documents
A second certificate that circulates a lot on Facebook is, however, a montage that started with a joke.
This parodic derogatory travel certificate has sometimes been taken in the first degree. / DR
On November 2, an Internet user published in a Facebook group parodies relating to Napoleon I, "Neurchi of Napoleon Bonaparte", a false certificate of displacement, supposed to imitate the style of the time.
The false document would make it possible to make essential purchases such as “wine” or “hooch”, and would allow people to travel in order, for example, to be taken “to the guillotine”.
"Do not forget your document otherwise it is 25 germinal francs fine", accompanies in caption the assembly.
Within the group, this publication amused a lot.
But it is quickly shared elsewhere, on other Facebook pages as well as on LinkedIn or Twitter.
And many Internet users take the publication at face value, confusing it with real documents of the time.
Informed that his photo is now circulating virally, the creator says in a comment that he regrets having created this poster, not thinking that people could believe it.
Other parody attestations have also flourished on Twitter since the re-containment to amuse Internet users.
Much to the chagrin of historians.
Take care with the controls of the maréchavsée there is no forgetting of your derogation during your journeys.
Ycelvi magic parchment vovs will give protection against pestilence and gvet.
# Waiver # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/DxLiY5adQD
- Simon de THUILLIÈRES (@thuillieres) October 31, 2020
