ABSTRACT
This book has been concerned chiefly with the nature of urban politics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during the heart of the early modern era. But it is important to realize that many aspects of urban politics remained remarkably unchanged throughout the eighteenth century, right down to the end of the ancien régime. Until the French Revolution began to cause upheavals over Europe, the governmental structure of most cities remained remarkably intact. City councils continued to meet two or three times a week as they always had, their deliberations still a secret to all but the legal advisers who counseled them and the scribes who recorded their decisions. The procedures for choosing mayors and council members were scrupulously observed year after year. The traditional calendar of municipal processions and ceremonies and assemblies continued to be followed faithfully.
