French Workbooks for the Grand Duchess Marie-Caroline de Hapsburg-Lorraine

After describing the cultural background to the life of Maria Carolina (1822-1841), first-born child of Leopold II, last reigning grand duke of Tuscany, the paper examines the contents of the notebooks containing exercises completed by the grand-duchess between 1832 and 1840. These notebooks, currently conserved in the archives of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family in Prague, contain grammar exercises, dictations, conjugations of irregular verbs, essays on literature and exercises in letter-writing. With a certain regularity they bear the corrections of her tutor. The difficulty of the exercises and the level of precision required tell us much about the results obtained by the pupil, while the topics indicate the preferences of her tutor, who appears to be mainly concerned with the use that the grand-duchess would make of them in her social life. The exercises themselves, which at times reveal little-known aspects of daily life and social events, provide valuable evidence regarding Maria Carolina's education, which was intended to prepare her for the life she expected to lead.