JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

There is a developing thread on this blog of Alphabets of Various Things (An Alphabet of Apocalypses, An Alphabetical Bestiary of Bob, An Alphabet of Death and Destruction in Antique Childrens’ Verse, to name the most recent three entries), and so when I saw this engraving I thought there must be a place for it in that series.

The image shows hammer-happy Maximillian Robespierre, one of the executors of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, as he is executing the execution, who has made his way through the citizens of France, most of whom are depicted in the labeled guillotines in the background, though the alphabetiziation of death curiously ends with the letter “R”. This print is ostensibly showing activity in 1793; in the following year Robespierre himself would visit the “National Abbreviator” and meet his own fate with the blade he sharpened so well.

It is worth pointing out that poor Dr. Guillotin had nothing to do with the instrument–he was really only looking for a more humane way of putting away people sentenced to death and was appalled that the new instrument introduced to that function bore his name.  It turns out that the family kept the name until the good Doctor died in 1814, and then abandoned the name to history.  

[Image source: wikipedia commons, here.]