Manuscript DS in Latin, signed “Guillotin,” twelve total pages, 7 x 9.5, March 8, 1788. Lengthy document compiling a large list of names and qualifications of various students for receipt of baccalaureate degrees. Signed at the conclusion by Guillotin, and countersigned by several others. In fine condition.
For a man whose surname is most associated with a device used to decapitate people, Guillotin was a famously influential reformer and humanitarian, and opposed the death penalty throughout his life. During a debate on capital punishment on October 10, 1789, Guillotin, one of ten Paris deputies in the Estates-General assembly, proposed that death, if unavoidable, should come swiftly, painlessly, and advocated on behalf of an apparatus designed by the surgeon Dr. Antoine Louis. In a follow-up meeting on December 1st, Guillotin was quoted as saying: 'Now, with my machine, I cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye, and you never feel it!' His words made headlines and his lifelong affiliation with an instrument he never created was born.
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