Histoire du Canton de Vaud

Par Auguste Verdeil (1795-1856)

Lausanne, Martignier et Compe., 1849-1852


Table of Contents

Verdeil was a master of the telling of the history of his homeland. The story is full of twists and turns, of awkward moments as well as triumphs. All of the long history of the Pays de Vaud deserves to be told, for without it, it is impossible to understand how it came to be the modern Canton de Vaud. Verdeil had the modesty to end his story with the Acte de Médiation in 1803. While he knew very well the later events of this story, having lived through and participated in them himself, he also knew that the story could not be told until more time had passed. The mémoires of the participants had not yet been published, the documents had not yet come to light, and in any case, it was impossible fully to understand the impact of such recent events. With the death of Verdeil, unfortunately, the art of the historian suffered a great loss. Today, the writing of history is most often replaced with analytical sociology and demography, illustrated by gratuitous charts and graphs; pie charts seem especially popular. We would much rather hear the tales, some stirring, some long and convoluted, of the great men and women who shaped the destiny of their nations. In such stories we find lessons; in pie charts, scarcely any.

All of the chapters are now published! The chapter title appears in underlined text below; click on it to access the text. It will be noted that the Table of Contents also serves as a convenient précis of the history of Canton Vaud! Additional resources for each chapter will be added as time permits.

A note about typography

Verdeil's Histoire was published over a period of several years and shows traces of many hands in the preparation of the manuscript for printing, some more fastidious than others. There are many variations of spelling, layout, etc., most of which we have attempted to preserve, to the extent that current web browser engines can support these features. A few obvious errors and inconsistencies have been corrected for the benefit of modern readers. The Georgia font that most of our readers will have installed on their personal computers gives a reasonable facsimile of the appearance of the original publication.


Coordinator for this site is John W. McCoy
You are our visitor since April 13, 2001!
This page last updated