• 1 For instance: Albert de Lasalle, “Chronique Musicale. Statistique financière de l’Opéra. – Théâtre (...)

2When Olivier Halanzier’s mandate as head of the Opéra de Paris came to an end in April 1879, a multitude of articles reported on the Fine Arts administration budget committee discussions, for which Antonin Proust, deputy of the Deux-Sèvres (western France department) and member of the Conseil supérieur des Beaux-Arts (Superior Council for the Fine Arts), was rapporteur. In all the newspapers, the amounts were presented in the same way: separated in two parts (expenditure and revenue) and in two columns (with a sum in Francs next to each heading). This simplified balance sheet led to a subtraction, the result of which was given in a sentence repeated in each article: “As a result, the profit for 1877 was 242,311 fr. 30.”1

• 2 “Here is this table, which is curious at least in terms of the figures it contains: etc.” (Jules Pr (...)

3This episode resembles dozens of others punctuating the parliamentary chronicle. However, the fact that several journalists emphasized the “curiosity” of the budget2 deserves a closer look into what might have motivated the press to publish such seemingly off-putting figures.

• 3 Pierre Larousse, Grand dictionnaire universel du xix^e siècle… Tome cinquième, Paris, Administration (...)
• 4 “Amateur taste or passion for unusual, rare things of all kinds” (ibid.).
• 5 Ibid., p. 683.

4While revealing the backstage secrets of theatres and the private lives of artists was then a very popular literary genre (Jarrasse 2019), it may come as a surprise that financial data should have aroused the “ardent and often indiscreet desire to know, to surprise, to penetrate the secrets and affairs of others,” according to the definition of “curiosity” given in the Grand dictionnaire universel du xix^e siècle,3 or even that there could have been patented amateurs of bookkeeping entries.4 At the time, the curious collector of unusual things was a generally mocked figure. In 1869, Larousse’s French dictionary entry ironically referred to the collecting fever of its contemporaries, who indiscriminately collected earthenware, chinoiserie, weapons, autographs, musical instruments, costumes, postage stamps and cigar stubs.5

• 6 The specificity of the samples did not disqualify them from becoming what Patricia Falguières (2003 (...)

5In the 1980s, contributions by Krzysztof Pomian (1987) and Antoine Schnapper (1988, 1994) showed that curiosity, which enjoyed a golden age between the sixteenth and mid-eighteenth centuries, was not simply a hoarding frenzy. From the objects gathered in a cabinet (Lugli 1998; MacGregor & Impey 2001; Mauriès 2002) or in a wonder-room (Falguières 2003), whether an amateur or a scholar, the curious enthusiast deployed genuine knowledge devices (Davenne 2004; Kenny 2004), based on techniques borrowed from the oratory arts (such as memory palaces [Bolzoni 2001]), physical experiences (looking at things linked through verbal descriptions) and doctrines of representation (the juxtaposition of heterogeneous parts as substitutes of the world).6

• 7 For instance: Hippolyte Lucas, Curiosités dramatiques et littéraires, Paris, Garnier, 1855; Victor  (...)

6Curiosity did not disappear with the Ancien Régime, far from it (Davenne & Fleurent 2012 [2011]). Throughout the nineteenth century, numerous publications embraced the term in areas as diverse as zoology and botany, archaeology and history, travel literature and art.7 Most museums continued to display curiosities in their showcases, while World Fairs—attracting masses of visitors in the second half of the century—intertwined encyclopaedic classification with the accumulations of unusual artefacts.

• 8 Nathan, “Les Curiosités théâtrales,” Le Gaulois, 4 December 1873. One of the leading music magazine (...)
• 9 Jules Claretie, “Revue théâtrale,” La Presse, 20 August 1877.
• 10 “But here is a more recent memory that I dedicate to lovers of musical curiosities” (Alfred d’Aunay (...)
• 11 “Let me tell you an old story that lovers of theatrical curiosities will easily be able to retrieve (...)

7It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the press published a wealth of facts that were difficult to characterize unequivocally: they were neither elements of science nor mere entertainment, and could not be reduced to anecdotes. The expressions “theatrical curiosities” or “dramatic curiosities” were commonplace in daily and specialist newspapers throughout the century. They were used as titles for articles of “amusing erudition”8 and also referred to entertaining news, “little unknown or forgotten new facts,”9 retrospective compilations of minor historical information, or could even qualify the groups of readers that were enthralled by this type of information10 and who shared a common repertoire of facts memorized or recorded in specialized works11.

• 12 There are, for instance, abundant figures on theatrical life in the volumes of the Annuaire de l’éc (...)
• 13 Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, statistics for specialists have been published in de (...)

8Among the curiosities exploited by the press is the statistical data compiled in great numbers from the middle of the century onwards by government officials, administrators of industrial and commercial institutions and businesses, and learned investigators.12 This fed into a general fascination for numeric data (Klotz 2006) that affected more and more theatre-lovers after 1870. If theatrical statistics—like all statistics popularized by newspapers—are somewhat curious, it is because their purpose is not so much to engage in learned debate as to entertain or astonish readers with no specific technical knowledge.13 Columns of figures placed in the pages of daily newspapers or art magazines generate the equivalent effect of strange objects exhibited in private homes or public galleries: shreds of the world intended to provoke astonishment as well as edification or amusement.

• 14 Count Albert Berthier de Lasalle (1833–1886), editor of Le Monde illustré for thirty years (1857–18 (...)
• 15 “We have this document [the detailed statement of royalties collected by the Société des auteurs et (...)
• 16 “We caution those who are enemies of statistics that it would be imprudent for them to venture a gl (...)

10Albert de Lasalle, who ran the music column in Le Monde illustré from 2 May 1857 until his untimely death on 24 April 1886, regularly published what he described as “curious” statistics.14 To define the contours of the genre, let us take a typical article published in July 1877.15 Many publications like this one begin with a few words of precaution, in which the writer urges his readers not to turn back at the sight of numerical data.16

• 17 Ibid., p. 58.
• 18 “The figures we are studying may have faltered for the sole reason that they have been too stretche (...)

11The “original elements” used to elaborate the article were taken from an official body: the Bulletin de la Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques. Lasalle said that he had, as was his wont, “taken up and […] reworked this authentic data to form tables that could capture readers’ minds.”17 The tables in question consist of several two-column lists: the first giving the names of the theatres or towns, the second providing figures for receipts or royalties. After shuffling through the millions and determining a trend by comparing the results of 1877 with those of the 1868–1869 season, the journalist speculates on the reasons for the falls or rises.18

• 19 Ibid.
• 20 Ibid., p. 59.

12Although it is difficult to exploit statistics on provincial and foreign theatres published in the Bulletin because it “does not separate the products of the musical repertoire from those of the literary repertoire,” Lasalle is quick to assure his reader that the Bulletin” nonetheless contains some curious revelations19. The columnist gives the ranking of royalties received by department as an example. From Gironde at the top of the list with 68,746 francs to Ariège at the bottom with 24 francs, there is “a sudden decrescendo”20—a quirk that Lasalle points out but fails to explain.

• 21 Ibid.

13The article ends with “a calculation that would be of great interest if we had the patience to apply it to all the towns in France.” To support his assertion, Lasalle takes a few towns “at random samples” before asking the following question: “Given a town whose inhabitants are known, and the total royalties collected by its theatre, what sum do each of these inhabitants send on average per year to the Société des auteurs?”21 (Professional Association for Authors) The answer is incomplete, since the calculations are provided for only 17 towns.

• 22 In the conclusion, the author once again admits his discomfort: “But it is enough to insist on thes (...)

14Despite Lasalle’s concern that statistics would be out of place in a non-specialist newspaper like Le Monde illustré,22 the text dispelled any apprehensions readers might have had. Though thorny computations were promised, the calculations were limited to childishly simple arithmetic operations (addition or division, with numerical data displayed in descending order). There was no attempt to explain the most astonishing results or to draw any lessons from the estimated per capita contributions to the Professional Association for Authors. His statistics merely set out a collection of numbers, the unveiling of which alone should suffice to satisfy the reader’s curiosity.

• 23 “Droits d’auteur. Tableau comparatif des exercices 1875-1876 et 1876-1877, pour Paris, les départem (...)

15The figures presented by Lasalle had appeared two months earlier in the liaison bulletin of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (Professional Association for Authors and Composers, SACD).23 They were spread over twelve tightly packed pages, presented in the form of five—to seven-column tables, making it possible to compare two financial years (1875–1876 and 1876–1877). The series were summarized in tables rearranging the data by theatre, by month, by town category or by department. Finally, the compilers of the Bulletin systematically calculated the difference between takings and royalties in favour of the SACD.

• 24 On the practice of reuse in journals in the nineteenth century, see Mombert (2021).

17Generally speaking, theatre statistics—a typical example of which has just been presented—creates abstracts from directories of figures for scholarly or professional use.24 The main operations carried out by the journalist of Le Monde illustré therefore consisted of eliminating data and simplifying its presentation to emphasize the discrepancies between theatres or cities. These reconfigurations were not without their challenges, as Lasalle himself wittingly acknowledged in an article published in 1885:

• 26 Albert de Lasalle, “Chronique Musicale. Théâtre-Italien : Messe de Requiem de M. Verdi. – Audition (...)

18Statistics printed in a non-specialist journal are just as costly for readers, who are obliged to make an unusual intellectual effort, as they are for the author, who is forced to be meticulous when compiling the data, as well as for the craftsmen printing the journal, whose work is slowed down by the complicated layout. Although the columnist writing for Le Monde illustré claimed that statistics were ill-suited to the production rhythm and customs of the general press, he persisted in including in his contributions for years: “statistical curiosities that can capture the minds of our readers by showing them the state of things in the form of figures, simply by illustrating the state of affairs in the form of figures, which are brief and irrefutable.”26

• 27 Statistique du théâtre du Havre, Le Havre, Imprimerie Faure, 1827 and 1828 ; Statistique théâtrale. (...)
• 28 H. Moreno [Henri Heugel], “Semaine théâtrale,” Le Ménestrel, 22 June 1879, p. 235.
• 29 “—Statistics from the Opéra: During the first half of this year, one hundred performances were give (...)
• 30 “—Le Monde Artiste has published a curious little statistical work: the duration of a number of ope (...)
• 31 “—One of our colleagues provides a statistic on the longevity of musicians. According to this compa (...)
• 32 “Nouvelles diverses. Paris et départements,” Le Ménestrel, 27 July 1879, p. 279.

19During the last third of the century, Lasalle’s texts were by no means exceptional. Theatrical statistics had long been valued, whether in the form of monographs27 or press articles on the number of directors who had succeeded each other at the head of the Opera,28 the repertoire of the theatres,29 the length of plays,30 the age at which musicians died,31 or comparative incomes of Parisian theatres.32 Regardless of the topic, we can discern the contours of a journalistic genre that falls within the nebula of news surrounding performances (backstage gossip, artists’ biographies and obituaries, historical anecdotes, etc.) and is characterized by the fact that “curious” statistics (at once singular, entertaining and instructive) are accessible to any reader with no particular expertise.

• 33 [Armand Gouzien], “Une Année d’Opéra,” Journal de Musique, 19 April 1879.
• 34 Armand Gouzien (1839–1892) was a songwriter who turned to theatre and music criticism. He edited th (...)
• 35 On the importance of the subvention for the Opéra de Paris, see Nicolle (2020).

21Published in the Journal de Musique,33 Armand Gouzien’s34 “A Year at the Opera” (Une année d'Opéra) was yet another reworking of the Opera’s normal budget for 1877, which Antonin Proust had used in the budget committee to argue for the first subsidized stage to be placed under management.35 To conclude his remarks, the editor of the Journal de Musique simply reproduced the sentence repeated by all his colleagues—“From which it follows that the profit for the year 1877 was 242,311 fr. 30 c.”—without commenting on it himself.

• 36 Albert de Lasalle, “Chronique Musicale. Le budget de l’Opéra en 1777 – et en 1877,” Le Monde illust (...)
• 37 On the relationships between Charles Nuitter and the readers of the Opera library, see Gressel (200 (...)
• 38 Le Monde illustré mentions Nuitter’s kindness in providing the critic and musicographer Adolphe Jul (...)

22A few days later, in Le Monde illustré, Albert de Lasalle stated that he had borrowed the same budget from Gouzien, and placed it alongside a second one in order to present “a comparative statement of the Opera’s income and expenditure one hundred years apart, in 1777 and 1877.”36 A keen collector of statistical data, the erudite journalist went to the Opera archives to gather the old material for his article. He did not, however, give the precise references of his documentation, nor did he mention the name of Charles Nuitter, who was in charge of the theatre’s archives at the time.37 During these years, Nuitter was frequently approached by members of the press.38 He was also profusely thanked and praised for his friendliness, a hardly anecdotal fact, at a time when getting hold of an unpublished play was more a matter of civility than of scholarly qualification, as the custodians of the repositories had the upper hand when it came to accessing the collections (Campos 2003: 228–242).

• 39 Albert de Lasalle, “Chronique Musicale...”, cited above.
• 40 “Singers’ salaries have increased more than tenfold since 1777. Assuming that the increase continue (...)

23When Lasalle published the Opera’s budget in 1777, did he become a historian? His article does contain a discussion on the royalties owed to the Opera by Parisian theatres in the eighteenth century, but this information bears no relation to the expenditure and revenue published in the text. The columnist is not trying to explain the Opera’s accounting past but to cause a shock: “The figures we have presented already speak for themselves thanks to their unexpected and abrupt comparison, which –in passing –has never been done before.”39 The closing lines overwhelm the reader with sensational new figures.40 In the same way that these statistics can be read without any prior technical skills in a literate environment, their production does not really require any specific know-how. The only prerogative of the expert would be to draw an edifying lesson from the exhibition of figures, which in this case are used as a plea for institutional reform.

• 41 Louis Besson (?–1891) was a theatre critic for fifteen years at L’Événement, where his serious arti (...)
• 42 Lasalle also allegedly committed an accounting error: “[he] neglected to enter under “must” as well (...)
• 43 Expenses were eleven times higher for singers, even though their numbers were stable; four times hi (...)

24Six months later, Louis Besson41 suggested in his column in L'Événement “Paris by Night” (Paris la Nuit) that not only was the “lesson” drawn by Lasalle questionable (the current director was said to make fifteen times more profit from his activities than his eighteenth-century counterpart),42 but also that other conclusions could have been deduced from the same figures. The journalist from L'Événement weighed up the sums mentioned by Lasalle by taking into account the number of artists involved in the salaries. The increase in expenses in the span of a century (around 410,000 francs in 1777 compared with 2,700,000 francs in 1879) did not benefit everyone. The beneficiaries were mainly the premiers sujets, while other employees were neglected.43

• 44 On the following 25 December, the Théâtre des Variétés premiered a one-act play written in associat (...)
• 45 “Nécrologie,” Le Monde artiste, 31 May 1891, p. 363.
• 46 Edmond Magnier, “Louis Besson,” L’Événement, 28 May 1891.

25Besson’s reassessment of budgets was based on a familiarity with the world of entertainment and its recent history. The journalist was also a playwright,44 having directed the Saint-Étienne theatre in his youth.45 When Besson died in 1891, Edmond Magner, director of L'Événement, wrote that “nothing relating to theatre was foreign to him.”46 It was because he observed the day-to-day life of the theatre that Besson had the idea of introducing professional hierarchies, staff numbers and the weight of levies specific to the operation of the theatre into his analysis. This empirical knowledge that enabled him to postulate that the same practices had been maintained for a century, and consequently to nuance the raw data provided by Lasalle.

• 47 Panserose [Louis Besson], "Paris la nuit", L’Événement, 7 November 1879.

26On the following 7 November, Besson revisited the subject and added new evidence to his initial reasoning: a “list of musicians at the Comédie-Italienne in 1779” found “in old archives”47—yet another discrete helping hand from a generous librarian? The document helps to clarify the initial calculations. In 1779, the premiers sujets (singers and dancers) were paid a third more than the 25 musicians hired; in 1879, the number of orchestral musicians had tripled and the salaries of the premiers sujets had increased tenfold. Once again, Besson interpreted the figures using his knowledge of the artistic professions, since he distinguished between the length of the careers of the premiers sujets, who had short careers, and those of the instrumentalists, who had to wait many years before finding a stable position.

• 48 On theatre and music critics at the end of the 19th century, see Goubault (1984); Bury & Laplace-Cl (...)

28Let us venture the hypothesis that the simplified statistical knowledge, so widespread among publicists recruited from the world of theatre and music, was acquired during their school education.48 Throughout the nineteenth century, arithmetic classes were designed to provide future households with the rudiments of calculation that would keep society out of unrest (Legros 2019: 31–34). A tool of moral education, the discipline offered skills that were directly useful in rural and urban domestic life.

• 49 Charles Lenglier, Cours d’arithmétique suivi des Notions élémentaires d’algèbre…, Paris, Victor Dal (...)

29Although statistics was never included in official school curricula, many arithmetic textbooks used it as a basis for their exercises. In a foreword to the 500 problèmes d'arithmétique et d'algèbre, Charles Lenglier, teacher, printed 17 tables from which the numbers used in the following pages are drawn, statistical tables taken from books on geography, political economy or agriculture.49 In the introduction to his Arithmétique élémentaire pratique, which contains more than 1,600 exercises and problems for primary schools, boarding schools, secondary schools, J.-G. Hoffet stated that

• 51 Pierre Larousse, Grand dictionnaire universel du xix^e siècle… Tome quatorzième, Paris, Administrati (...)
• 52 Ibid.

31If we follow the two main categories set out in the entry in the Grand dictionnaire universel du xix^e siècle, theatre statistics comes under both “statistics” strictly speaking, which “aims to collect and methodically group together social facts that can be expressed numerically,” and under “moral statistics,” understood as “an application of these calculations and other arithmetical means to the determination of the moral phenomena of the human species.” On the other hand, it has no connection with the mathematical part of statistics, which uses the calculation of probabilities to “formulate the calculable chances of human events.”51 Unsurprisingly, theatre journalists would stick to the “natural or expository method,” i.e. the least sophisticated procedure consisting of “collecting one by one all the numerical facts that make up the elements of the order of facts that we propose to know, grouping them together, coordinating them and, if necessary, reducing them in order to obtain the measure in a simpler formula, all without altering them.”52 To be more accurate, they borrowed figures collected by others and rearranged them in the columns of newspapers and magazines, occasionally supplementing them with knowledge acquired in the field.

• 53 Arthur Pougin, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque du théâtre et des arts qui s’y rattachent…, o (...)
• 54 “The financial question in theatre. Theatrical economy. Subscription; Agents; Salaries; Advances. – (...)
• 55 Archives du Théâtre Lyrique. Comptabilité. Journal de caisse du théâtre, du 17 septembre 1854 au 25 (...)

33In both tables, some of the words in the first columns overlap with entries in the Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque du théâtre et des arts s’y rattachent (Historic and Picturesque Dictionary of the Theatre and the Arts connected to it).53 The author alphabetically rearranged entries into a “Systematic table of words and expressions contained in this dictionary.”54 Accounting vocabulary dominated: ticket sales in all their forms, operating accidents, remuneration (artists and authors), income, expenditure, subsidies and taxes. In Pougin’s case, there was no entry devoted to the customary concepts found in political economy treaties: luxury, sumptuary expenditure, consumption or production of artistic services, utility or value, exchange, etc. The terms used by the author of the Dictionary, like those used by Besson or Lasalle, covered the operations corresponding to the “income” and “expenditure” columns of theatre budgets. However, the journalists did not use the terms found in the theatres’ account books (overheads, profits and losses, rebates, allowances, fines, etc.), nor any of the headings or specific items usually found in these same accounting sources (gas, rent, fire brigade, posters, suppliers, repairs, etc.).55 In other words, journalists would only write about the accounting items—takings, fees, etc.—that were most relevant to the public, because they were directly linked to the experience of spectators who had paid for their tickets and were used to being told about the singers’ remuneration in newspapers or during conversations at the interval. All these elements made up a sort of common vernacular economic language shared by journalists, theatre-lovers and amateurs.

• 56 The brochure contains a lot of accounting information and assumptions about Halanzier’s profits: Lé (...)
• 57 On parliamentary work: Nicolle (2015): 257–337.

35At the beginning of the Third Republic, with state support of 800,000 francs a year, the Opéra de Paris attracted more public attention than any other subsidized theatre (Patureau 1991: 87–88; Yon 2012: 115–128). Halanzier’s management was the target of extremely violent attacks, which led the director to take La Presse to court.56 The controversy surrounding the running of the Académie de Musique in 1878 is an excellent example of the use of statistics in the parliamentary deliberation process.57

• 58 “Chambre des députés. – Annexe n^o 877. (Séance du 8 novembre 1878). Rapport fait au nom de la commi (...)
• 59 Antonin Proust, Rapport fait au nom de la Commission du Budget sur le budget des dépenses de l’Exer (...)
• 60 “Le Théâtre national de l'Opéra,” Le Temps, 5 December 1878 and “Le Théâtre national de l’Opéra. Ra (...)

36We have already mentioned the publication of the Opera’s budget in 1877 in several periodicals, but in the autumn of 1878, all the committee discussions were widely publicized. The report on the Fine Arts presented by Antonin Proust to the relevant budget committee was inserted in the official journals58 and printed as a brochure.59 It was reproduced in its entirety in several newspapers and cut into selected sections in others. Next, came the report written by Senator Ernest Denormandie for the theatre commission in November 1878, a document replete with statistical tables, and widely distributed in the press.60

• 61 Ibid., p. 11131.
• 62 “Chambre des députés. – Annexe n^o 877. (Séance du 8 novembre 1878). Rapport fait au nom de la commi (...)

37The section of Proust’s report dedicated to the Opera retraces the financial history of Halanzier’s management (appointed director on 1^st November 1871) and methodically examines whether the specifications imposed by the State had been respected. Having failed to put on the bill the number of new acts scheduled in order to save money, the director-entrepreneur risked losing his subsidy. However, the stumbling block was the issue of calculating profits in order to share them, as specified in an additional article in the specifications, stipulating that surpluses would be divided into two halves, one going to the director or his successors and the other going into a supply fund.61 The dispute was settled on the basis of old statistical series. Proust recalled the “fine periods” of management that the Opera had experienced, the alternating concessions of privileges with the management system, and stated that even though “the material administration of the Opera has been prosperous under the direction of M. Halanzier,” the profits “get weaker every year” and would have been nil were it not for the “extraordinary resources” provided by the organization of the masquerade balls and the influx of spectators who came to Paris to visit the Universal Exhibition.62

• 63 Thomas Grimm [pseudonym for an author society], “Un nouveau septennat,” Le Petit Journal, 8 décembr (...)
• 64 Albert de Lasalle, “Chronique Musicale. Statistique financière de l’Opéra. – Théâtre de l’Opéra-Com (...)
• 65 Ibid.

38The rapporteur’s historical overview was supposed to convince the Budget Committee that Halanzier’s financial position had deteriorated to such an extent that only a direct takeover by the State could ensure the Opera’s future. At the end of November, Denormandie persuaded the sub-committee on theatres to adopt a mixed solution, involving a management company and delegation to a director. An article in Le Petit Journal commented on the senator’s report on the “financial statistics of the Opera,” insinuating that its author was campaigning underhandedly for Émile Perrin—then head of the Comédie-Française—to take over the management of the theatre.63 In Le Monde illustré, Lasalle ironized about “the myth of an Opera goldmine, a California Opera”64 and sided with the threatened director after quoting the Denormandie report: “The figures published are terrifying for the ambitious people who are trying to pick a fight with M. Halanzier, in the undeclared but likely hope of taking his place.”65

• 66 On the replacement of Halanzier by Vaucorbeil: Patureau (1991: 45 and 85–87); Pasler (2010); Monnie (...)

39On 12 April 1879, the Budget Committee voted, as usual, for a subsidy of 800,000 francs, implicitly extending the status quo: Proust was defeated. Auguste Vaucorbeil succeeded the reviled director a year later. The polemic surrounding the figures had allowed opposing forces to confront each other with a semblance of objectivity. Rather than hurling invective at each other, they opted to quarrel by means of interposed analyses. From the Fine Arts administration’s point of view, statistics made it possible to justify the decision of France’s leading stage’s operating regime. As far as the management was concerned, the balance sheets were supposed to reassure the public and politicians that the contractor, who had reached the end of his term of office, was being properly administered. For some journalists, examining the sums was either an argument in Halanzier’s favour or a means of discrediting his management.66

• 67 Comptabilité, 1867–1919, Archives of Opéra de Paris, French National Archives [AJ¹³ 1202].

40The figures that had been bandied about column after column came from the theatre itself. Every week, the Opera produced mountains of accounting documents (80 boxes of archives have been preserved for the daily seat hire sheets alone between 1875 and 1914…) and overviews for its own internal administration.67 From time to time, the directors sent balance sheets to the minister, while the rapporteurs for the Fine Arts budget and the finance inspectors checked the accounts. They all recompiled and summarized the data (Patureau 1991: 95).

• 68 The daily financial renting sheets have been collected systematically between 1855 and 1937 (with a (...)

41One can only imagine how meticulously the directors of subsidized theatres scrutinized daily receipts, as an indicator of a play’s fortunes, then immediately communicated to the authors or the supervisory administration. At the Opera, takings were recorded on sheets, statements, and slips each day.68 As programming was determined virtually on a daily basis, theatre managers had to work out trends in attendance, either at a glance, or by asking their clerks to summarize and synthesize the countless figures available.

• 69 Albert de Lasalle, “Statistique commerciale de l’Opéra,” Le Monde illustré, 16 May 1885, p. 339.

42A number of statistics published in the press illustrate the work carried out behind the scenes, enabling those in charge of running theatres in a context of fierce competition to take a play or a star off the bill or, on the contrary, to give it a chance (Goetschel & Yon 2008). In 1885, Albert de Lasalle made subtle deductions for his readers from two tables: the list of works performed between 14 April 1882 and 14 April 1885 on the one hand, and the “financial account of each of our great operas” for the same period on the other.69 The journalist found the first nomenclature “a little dry” and deplored the fact that it did not cover a long enough period to be meaningful. Only by cross-referencing this list with “the financial accounts of each of our great opera houses” could Lasalle refine his comments:

• 71 On the oscillation between education and entertainment in the nineteenth century press, see Bara (2 (...)

45Once moved to the pages of newspapers, however, figures had other effects, as they entered the sphere of curious entertainment.71 Although the economic knowledge published in the columns seemed fragmented and incomplete (when compared with that of economic specialists or professional accountants), the data taken from the archives or the accounts of theatres and reformulated, satisfied the readers’ interest in what went on behind the scenes in the theatre world. Presented in the form of simplified account books, they gave the impression that figures spoke a language that anyone could understand. For this work of (re)configuration, the chronicle genre was a facilitator, imposing a short text and a lexicon of common sense, which focused attention on the cardinal figures of theatrical operations: revenues and artistic expenditure.

• 72 To face the increasing demand, the publication of manuals and treaties on statistics intensifies du (...)

47The statistics we have examined are therefore a long way from the “essential tool for ‘rationalizing’ the conduct of human affairs” referred to by Alain Desrosières (2013 [2000]: 9), and are a blind spot in the histories of statistics, which have only taken scholarly practices into account (David 2001). As a skill acquired on the spot, statistics were not written by authors trained in textbooks,72 in the accounting field or in business schools (Poivret 2015). Their shared knowledge was school arithmetic, which took many of its examples from contemporary statistical compendia.