Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to present, very shortly, Saint-Cyr - an exceptional school in France, which was completly different from other convents
where the girls of the social elite used to be educated during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. I choose to use the utility prism to study Saint-Cyr, as a conceptual
tool, but one has to bear in mind that this term wasn’t used by the founders,
Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon. I base my work on the intendant’s report
and first I will wonder if Saint-Cyr was a “national school” or a “royal one”. Then
I will present the objectives of this institution, and more particularly its utility as an
educational institution since, as Astruc said, Saint-Cyr’s goal was to “récompenser
les enfants des parents qui ont bien mérité de la patrie” and to form goods mothers
in every possible social situation.
