1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Thermidor

THERMIDOR (from Gr. θέρμη), heat, and δῶρον, gift), the name given during the French Revolution to the eleventh month of the year in the Republican Calendar. The month fell in the hottest season of the year, beginning on the 19th or 20th of July and ending on the 18th or 19th of August, according to the year. As in all the other months of the Republican Calendar, each of the days of Thermidor was, in accordance with the suggestion of Fabre d’Églantine, consecrated to some useful object. Thus 1 Thermidor was consecrated to spelt, 10 Thermidor to the watering-pot, 15 Thermidor to sheep, and 27 Thermidor to lentils. The most important event that took place in this month was the revolution of 9 Thermidor year II. (27th of July 1794), which resulted in the fall of Robespierre and the collapse of the Terror. The name Thermidorian (Thermidorien) was given to the authors of this revolution and to the supporters of the reactionary movement of which it was the signal.

See C. d'Héricault, La Révolution de Thermidor (2nd ed., Paris, 1878); E. B. Courtois, Rapport fait au nom de la commission chargée de l’examen des papiers trouvés chez Robespierre et ses complies (1795); D. A. Martin, Papiers inédits … supprimés ou omis par Courtois (3 vols., 1828); also bibliography in M. Tourneux, Bibliog. de la ville de Paris … (1890), vol. i., nos. 4265–4309.