All issues of Journal de Monaco now online

©Manu Vitali - Direction de la Communication

In connection with the latest meeting of the State Archives Consultancy Committee, being held today at the Ministry of State, Robert Colle, the Secretary-General of the Government, has just published all issues of the Journal de Monaco online.

Commonly known as the “official journal”, the publication can now be accessed from www.journaldemonaco.gouv.mc .

From this website, the public will be able to access all issues of the journal, in pdf format, dating back to the first edition published on 30 May 1858. When it was first issued, the Journal de Monaco, initially titled L’Eden, included a section devoted to Monegasque national life in addition to the official section.

 The search engine has been specially designed and enables users to search for laws and regulations by year, category and theme. It is also possible to carry out a full text search for historical and social events which took place in the Principality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on the results found, a ‘Refine’ option is available to help users track down the information they are looking for.

Depending on the latest news, regular editorial content will highlight some of the major events which have taken place in the country’s history.

A version of the website for tablets and smartphones has also been developed, and the interface is available in English. Users can also sign up to receive a summary of the Journal de Monaco by email or subscribe to the print edition directly from the new website.

The State Archives Consultancy Committee was established by Sovereign Ordinance No. 3.413 of 29 August 2011, at the same time as the Central Records Office. The role of the Committee, chaired by Corinne Laforest de Minotty, Inspector General of the Civil Service, is to “develop, on behalf of the Minister of State, proposals and recommendations to guide or improve the management of the public archives”. It is made up of representatives from the Prince’s Government and three experts appointed by the Minister of State: Evelyne Van den Neste, Head of the President of the French Republic’s Archive and Documentary Information Service; Olivier Poncet, Professor of the History of Institutions, Archives and Modern Diplomacy at the French Ecole Nationale des Chartes; and Thomas Fouilleron, Director of the Prince’s Palace Archives and Library.

One of the Committee’s first recommendations was to digitise documents of historical or heritage value held in the government archives. The online publication of the Journal de Monaco is part of this initiative, and makes the Principality of Monaco one of a very few countries to have made available its entire collection of official journals online.