| Summary: | ‘The influence of Versailles’ in Europe and even worldwide has long been taken for granted in historiography. This idea has been supported by the work of French historians (especially Louis Réau) and relayed by scholars abroad, until at least the mid-twentieth century. It contributed to establishing Versailles as a model for other European courts and, in so doing, to its mythification. The aim of this article is to examine this scholarly concept: to what extent is historiography based on a fantasized idea of Versailles, and how, inversely, has it contributed to fuelling this idea? We retrace the evolutions of this paradigm, particularly the ways it has come under scrutiny, in order to understand how historians gradually disqualified it. From the first empirical criticisms of the 1960s and 1970s to the history of historical representations, via cultural transfers and court studies, we look back at over half a century of scholarly research, the better to enlighten present and future research.
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